Evidence of meeting #28 for Human Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities in the 43rd Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was system.
A recording is available from Parliament.
5:10 p.m.
Conservative
5:10 p.m.
Conservative
Raquel Dancho Conservative Kildonan—St. Paul, MB
I know the most recent budget included a number of announcements for EI as well. It would be pertinent, of course, to include those. I know they happened as we were wrapping up this study.
I don't know what Madam Chabot thinks, but it might be nice to include the more recent announcements, and then include them in the costing as well, since that will influence any reform, given the new changes that were brought forward.
I don't know what the other committee members think, but there should be a mention and a little bit of analysis in the costs section, and wherever else the analysts feel they should fit that in. We would be remiss if we did not include the latest announcements in this report.
5:10 p.m.
Bloc
Louise Chabot Bloc Thérèse-De Blainville, QC
Thank you.
There are all kinds of good ideas, but I have one big wish. There have been several reports since 2016. Still, things are being implemented. Some work has been done by the Employment Insurance Commission. There is no commissioner for employers, which is unfortunate because the process is not complete. But that does not prevent the commission from working, especially on the issue of regions. Mr. Vaughan said that, on Prince Edward Island, the division of regions is currently being studied. As far as I know, there should be some conclusions.
Emergency measures had to be put in place. Not counting the CERB and the three programs, there were still measures to make employment insurance more flexible. They are temporary measures, of course, but we had 420 hours, the number of weeks and the minimum unemployment rate. Some things have been tried before, and are still being tried. But it is true that they are temporary.
We were told that there was a problem with the computer systems, but at the same time there was some success because more flexible and less complex measures were put in place to sustain the program. Solutions are already being studied. Yes, the employment insurance program is cumbersome. I think the objective of the recommendations is to see what is already being done, in order to find out what can be done.
Right now, we are at the stage of preparing a report. We are not at the stage of proposing solutions, although I already have some. I think that the report should reflect what the experts have told us as much as possible.
5:10 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Sean Casey
Thank you, Ms. Chabot.
Mr. Vaughan, did you have a further intervention or did you just not lower your hand? Okay, your hand has been lowered.
That exhausts the speakers list, so I'm going to go back to the analysts to see if there are any questions arising from that direction. That was of course a bit disparate, as is often the case with drafting instructions, but I want to see whether that helps as you embark on your work or if you require any clarification before we seek a motion to adjourn.
5:15 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Sean Casey
Excellent. Our agenda is complete.
Do we have consensus to adjourn? I see consensus. We'll see you all on Tuesday. Thank you.
The meeting is adjourned.