That's an excellent question, and I'm going to answer it by convincing you—but I think you're already convinced—of our vision for the employment insurance program and by going back to what we did at the outset.
At the outset, we reversed the discriminatory measures that had been applied against women and young people by Mr. Harper's Conservative government. We made a commitment to do it, and we did it quickly.
Approximately 50,000 unemployed workers received more respectful treatment after those discriminatory measures were reversed. Then we shortened the qualifying period from two weeks to one, which benefited 1.8 million Canadian unemployed workers, many of whom were engaged in seasonal work. In the last budget, we also offered more flexibility for workers in more difficult health and income situations who needed sickness benefits. That increased flexibility will therefore benefit several tens of thousands of those families that are in difficulty.
As for the black hole—as you may have noticed—for the first time in Canadian government history, specific funding to support our seasonal workers was included in budget 2018. That funding amounted to $10 million in very short-term assistance. Agreements have been signed with all the provinces concerned. The beneficial impact of those agreements can be seen and observed in our communities. For the next two years, $230 million has been allocated to solve this problem over the long term, although the method for doing so remains to be determined. This is a two-year commitment to the communities, workers, employers, and provinces and territories so that we can seriously focus together on how we will solve the black hole problem, as the prime minister has undertaken to do and as we have clearly demonstrated by including this $230 million item in budget 2018.