My understanding is that there were significant cuts to EI in the 1990s, and those cuts were a result of the debt crisis that was, in part, generated by many years of deficits at the federal level in the seventies.
I have concerns, employers have concerns, and I know you have concerns about the debt we're taking on today. Are we going to be facing a debt crisis in a few years, in five years or in 10 or 20 years whereby we're going to have to make significant cuts to critical social programs that, as has been outlined this year, Canadians are relying on?
You represent 200,000 Canadian businesses. Are there any concerns regarding future cuts to EI and what that may mean, maybe the burden they may bear as a result? You said in your opening remarks, in particular, that there should be no permanent changes at this time, because we're not quite sure how we're going to pay for it yet, given the fluctuations we've seen in the last year. Could you comment on that generally?