No, I'll tell you what that did. That put undue pressure on claimants who are already in a terribly stressful situation because they've lost their jobs. They have a mortgage. They have a car. They have a family. They have children in university. They have everything else, every bill that you and I have. It was seen as punitive for workers.
I had somebody ask me if I knew that when you're on EI you feel as if you've done something wrong. That really hit home for me. I think that probably the reasonable and suitable employment, the CCAJ as we refer to it—connecting Canadians to available jobs—was probably the most talked-about issue among my stakeholders since 2012 and how demeaning those changes made them feel. Even if they didn't lose their benefits because of the changes it was still the whole stigma hanging over them. To say now they have to accept this job at 70% less, and by the way if they're a seasonal worker they only get six weeks to look for a job, I can't tell you how that affected the claimants, and these are the people who pay into EI and who trusted that EI would be there for them when they needed it.
Did it make them get back to work any more quickly? I don't believe it did. As I said earlier I believe that 99% of people who are not working and who should be working want to be working. When you're not working you don't just lose your money you lose your sense of empowerment, your sense of dignity, your sense of pride in your community, within your family. It goes on and on. Do most people want to be working? Absolutely.