I am sorry to have to stop you, but you know we don't have much time.
The whole point of modernizing the employment insurance system was to ensure that it could deal with situations like the pandemic.
You mentioned the Canada emergency response benefit earlier. You had to invent an emergency measure from scratch to deal with the situation.
You and many of your colleagues have said that the employment insurance system is outdated, that the social safety net has a hole in it, that it can't meet the needs and that it needed to be modernized. After numerous consultations with labour groups and advocacy groups, we know what the solutions are. What are we waiting for to implement them?
The economic period that you are talking about today is precisely the time for a new reform that can give workers access. We have been through a period of crisis, and if nothing is done now, it will be chaos again if we go through an economic crisis or a period of recession.
Nothing explains the delays in modernizing the regime.
The fact that there are no commitments on this issue is very disappointing for all the groups we represent.
I will ask you one last question.
Is the government proud, and are you proud, as a minister, of an employment insurance system that covers about 40% of those who pay into it, discriminates against pregnant women who lose their jobs because of unfair eligibility and accounting rules, provides no weeks of benefits for adoptions, and offers some of the lowest benefit rates?
This, Minister, is what needs to be strengthened, and you have all the tools to do it.
Can you tell us when you will be tabling a plan for employment insurance reform?