Thanks, Krista.
With respect to the EI program and a person with an episodic condition who is in the workforce, the benefit is not tailored specifically to those people. It is of general availability to workers who are dealing with an illness or an inability to work temporarily. There are those 15 weeks of benefits they're able to access.
There were changes announced this year in the budget and implemented in August of this year to allow workers receiving sickness benefits to access what we call the working while on claim provisions. These deal with how we treat the earnings of a worker if they're receiving EI benefits.
We heard in our conversations with stakeholders that some people who are dealing with an illness would like to make a progressive return to work, but with the old provisions—when they were not able to access “working while on claim”—if they attempted to do so and earned perhaps $250 in a week, just to give an example, we were reducing their EI benefits by that same $250. With the changed provisions, we now reduce their EI benefits by only 50 cents on the dollar. They would have $250 in employment income, and we would reduce the benefit by $125. In a sense, it's trying to reduce the disincentive for those who are able to make a progressive return to work.
I'd say that is a concrete step that has been made to try to assist people who are dealing with any kind of illness or injury, and it might also be helpful for people with an episodic illness.