Ms. Leslie MacLean at the Human Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities Committee

On June 6th, 2019. See this statement in context.

June 6th, 2019 / 1:25 p.m.

Senior Associate Deputy Minister of Employment and Social Development and Chief Operating Officer for Service Canada, Department of Employment and Social Development

Leslie MacLean

This is where I will look for help from the experts. In those peak periods, I would note that we have 100% accessibility for people who want to, or are able to, serve themselves through the automated system. For EI, for example, 65% of people self-serve, and never seek to speak to an agent.

In those very busy periods, in our current system, we have a finite number of lines. It's not just that we have a finite number of agents; we have a finite number of lines. That's what the improvement in technology has given us—the ability to have a national queue, not just a site-by-site queue.

Cliff, could you pick up and complete my thought, please?

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