Yes. It's absolutely very important to have a minimum floor. Imagine trying to live in a province where the minimum wage is $11.90 an hour. Living on 55% of that is just untenable even if you were lucky enough to have full-time work. I couldn't agree more that we need to have a minimum level of income supports for workers so that people can survive.
Remember, their survival is also about the survival of the local economy. When workers have money in their pockets, that's precisely why EI is an economic stabilizer. We can't be thinking about it as merely an expense. We have to think about that money going back into the economy, back into local businesses and stabilizing our economy until it is able to recover. Therefore, I agree fully with you that we need a minimum and much higher proportion of income that's insured.
That said, we also need to raise the ceiling on how much income is insured. People think they have an okay job where they might make $30,000 or $40,000 a year and they think maybe they can live on a portion of that. However, when you see what 55% of a capped income actually is at $45,000 or $50,000, it's not enough for people to live on.
I think we need both. We need the minimum weekly amounts of support, but we also need to raise the ceiling on insurable income, because that will actually put more money in people's pockets, as well as increasing EI revenues for funding.