Mr. Chair, there was a separate tracking account to keep track of expenditures and collections vis-à-vis the EI account, but there was not a separate bank account in which the funds were maintained.
As the member has indicated, this tracking account that was closed had a surplus of about $57 billion as a result of changes to the Employment Insurance Act, which were passed in 2009-10. That former account was closed, and the new account reset, established, and started off at zero. It was reset to zero.