Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
In the same vein as the comments I have heard since the beginning of this study this morning, I must first remind you that the federal government stopped contributing to the employment insurance fund in the early 1990s. I'm happy to hear people say that employment insurance must be reformed, but it is clear that the reform must require the federal government to start contributing to the employment insurance fund again as it used to in the early days. In fact, when the government stopped contributing, the 1996 Liberal reform made the rate of eligibility to benefits and the benefit amount drop. The Conservative reform in the mid-2000s made the situation worse. So the government must assume its responsibilities through a desired reform of employment insurance. Either it needs to contribute to the employment insurance fund or it needs to dissociate from it all the programs for special benefits, sickness, caregivers and episodic disabilities it created in its “generosity” by dipping into a fund to which it no longer contributes.
I think it is also important to remind people of this because it has been pointed out that health was a provincial responsibility. Yet federal health transfers have dropped from 50% to 19% in the latest agreement. Over the years, the federal government has been increasingly withdrawing from that sector, and the provinces are left with the burden. So we cannot make recommendations that would give the provinces new responsibilities without first thinking about increasing transfers. I absolutely want to bring this up from the outset.
Here is my first question for the witnesses. In September 2015, the Institute for Research on Public Policy asked Ottawa to create employment support services to facilitate return to work and create a centre of expertise providing employers with resources and information for situations when a worker falls ill. Has your department started working on those issues and finding solutions?