Thank you, Chair.
Thank you to our witnesses for being here today.
I am going to start with some questions for Witness Symonds.
I'm interested in two areas. This is kind of a modernization project on EI. It needs to be modernized. We know that. If we're going to open it up, it would be good to have a real understanding of how gender and climate change have impacted your work and seasonal workers.
I say that because when EI was first put together, they weren't really considering that women had work or full-time work, so we know there are many gaps. I think about maternity leave if you're a seasonal worker. I'm interested in how that affected you differently than it might affect other workers.
Then for climate change, can you just explain or describe how your work situation has changed over time with the change in climate? You even said “weather” a few times.
Has that changed over the years? How is it affecting work?