Thank you very much for the question, Mr. Boulerice.
We have dealt with unusual volume increases in EI claims over the last year, in large part because of the pandemic of omicron. We also have seasonal peaks that give us peaks and valleys in how we receive claims.
That being said, we have been able to process payments, meeting and exceeding our service standard of being able to pay claimants within 28 days 80% of the time. For the last fiscal year, our service standard was 85.4%, which exceeds our service standard and is the highest result in the last 15 years, if we exclude the period of COVID-19.
The majority of our claims are processed within two weeks for those that are beyond the 28-day service standard, so the 14.6% of remaining claims are processed within two weeks. For the last fiscal year, 2021-22, fewer clients waited beyond 28 days to receive their benefits. The average time it took for clients to receive EI payments was 18 days, and again, excluding the COVID-19 period, this is the best result since tracking began over 13 years ago.