Thank you for that.
I agree with you 100% that Gordon Orr and his team do a magnificent job down in Windsor-Essex Pelee Island.
One of the differences for young people in seasonal work is that they're constrained by their school year. They come out of school in the April or May time frame and join us. We have a growing shoulder season in the spring and particularly in the fall. We lose a lot of our younger workers in that last half of August, because they're getting ready to go back to school. They're cutting their season a little short because of their commitment to continuing their education. Older seasonal workers don't have that constraint. They can stay with us through the fall.
However, if we look at why a young worker versus an older worker might access EI, the younger worker is back in school and in an environment where they are housed and fed. Once the season is over, the older worker still has to figure out how to cover those costs. It's not surprising that you see that difference. My own kids went through this when they were in post-secondary school. They finished their work and went back to school. It didn't even enter their minds to apply for EI. Somebody older and out of school needs to continue to see income coming in once that job is finished.