One of our top priorities in my past four and a half years in working at the commission is to advocate for the protection of that fund. We've seen $57 billion over the last, I don't know, 20 years—I'm not sure—disappear into general revenues instead of going into the EI fund.
The purpose of EI in the very beginning, in 1940, under Joseph Sirois, was to act as a buffer between jobs, which today is what we know as regular benefits. Since then, the whole EI program has really evolved. We have special benefits and they are wonderful. We have training benefits—EI part II—and that too is wonderful. I hear from people every day who have had the opportunity to take advantage of all of those programs.
That said, the EI fund has had to increase. If we want to enhance and increase those programs.... A lot of those special benefit programs are being increased while the regular benefit program is not being increased, so we would like to see regular benefits also increased. In order to do that, you need to have a sustainable fund. You need to have a sustainable fund with a premium rate that is going to keep that fund very healthy in good times and in bad, as I said in the opening remarks. The parliamentary budget officer also recommends that there be some money in the fund for those difficult times.
The most important thing is to have the money there so that we can enhance those programs, because right know, as you said, Ms. Ashton, only 40% of workers are able to access EI regular benefits. When we see that, we look at it and say that there's something wrong there, because people are paying into that account.
We need to have a reasonable premium rate for employees and employers to pay, and we need to have a separate fund that is guarded for EI programs and that funds only EI programs.