Thank you, Madam Chair. We have deviated perhaps a little bit within this discussion today from what we're really trying to accomplish, so maybe I'll try to bring some of that focus back.
I do represent one of these communities we're talking about. I have six aboriginal communities. I live in the pine beetle forestry area, so we have been particularly devastated by what's been happening around us.
Now, I was back in my constituency last week, and I need to bring forward a few of the comments I was hearing from the men and women in my constituency. First of all, they don't have their heads in the sand, but they say we need to have an optimistic approach. So to suggest we are heading down a spiral of doom and gloom they suggest creates a spiral of doom and gloom. Perhaps we need to temper how we present things. Indeed, we have challenging times, but....
To be quite frank, they wanted the resources of the government focused on opportunities for jobs. They are incredibly enthusiastic about ideas around innovation. Yes, employment insurance is important, but you can help our communities move forward to a long-term future. So we can't lose sight of that within this.
The small businesses did talk about tax cuts in that they help them keep people employed, and that is making a difference.
We have an opportunity around the commitment to move towards maternity benefits, EI maternity and parental benefits. Right now I understand there's pretty good access—600 hours and you have 91% qualification—and we're moving forward to that expert panel being developed to look at self-employed Canadians. Being as I actually think I had about 12 weeks when I had my children many years ago, I would really like to spend at least a minute or two focused on comments from our panel in terms of self-employed access to maternity and parental benefits.