I'll try to be brief in terms of the suggestions here.
If you accept the principle that in EI we have gone well beyond the traditional insurance program that was originally designed, I think the fact that we have other objectives to meet in society doesn't mean we should look at EI as a panacea for all of this. Too often we've decided to do that.
When we talk about a shortage of skills, let's be very clear that we're talking about skills at all levels of the economy. It doesn't matter what you're talking about; we have a problem today in Canada.
I'll use apprenticeships as a very good example. I think if our friends from the trucking association were here, they'd tell you that they'd like to find 40,000 drivers today. In terms of apprenticeships, we've got some issues among the provinces in terms of labour mobility issues that we need to resolve as well, which are totally independent from how much funding we do. Are we in favour of increased funding in terms of driving apprenticeships? We are, and we've been on the record as saying that. We think it's critically important to do that.
From our standpoint, the skill sets that so many of our members need cut right across all sectors of the economy and all parts of the geography. As part of the skill shortages that we have in the country, there's a virtual crisis today. Go to Alberta and it is the first conversation you're going to have in terms of the oil patch and meeting its needs or in terms of someone running a service industry in Alberta, or elsewhere in Canada, where they can't get people to do the jobs.
Yes, I would very much support that.
One of the things this gets into, and it's always a tricky part of living in this country, is that you're again into the federal-provincial situation in terms of labour market development and the role the provinces play. It always tends to complicate the issue. You'd have to do this in a way that works in terms of the feds working with provincial governments.
I'll stop there.