If I simplify the context of the question a little bit, I would say that there are two important aspects to consider. First, there is access to the employment insurance system. Then, it is necessary to see if the regime contains measures that can meet the needs of families in these difficult and tragic circumstances.
In recent years, several changes have been made to improve access to the EI program, particularly with respect to the provisions for new and re-entering workers.
the new entrant and re-entrant provisions. These were changes that were made to facilitate access to the program for people who were newly entering the workforce or re-entering the workforce, which often has an impact upon younger Canadians as well as newcomers to Canada.
It's true, as you indicate, that there are many people who are not able to access the program due to not meeting the hours requirement. There certainly are stakeholders who push for reducing the hours requirement, and I would point out that this is something that we expect would assist more people to qualify for employment insurance, but it wouldn't help all people to qualify.
One of the other reasons is that, as you mentioned, there are many people working in non-standard work,
People whose earnings aren't insurable and who don't contribute to EI don't receive support when they need it.
Those are some challenges for the program, I would say, in looking at how we can continue to improve access.
I think it's important to mention that there are different ways to measure access to the program. You've referred to only about 40% qualifying for employment insurance. I would just point out that this refers to the number when we count all the people who are currently unemployed in Canada, regardless of whether they have been working recently or not, specifically in the last year. We also report a figure known as the EI coverage rate, which is about 80% of people who have worked in the last year in insurable employment.