Well, as I understand it, you know, it's pretty much as you stated. There are a couple of problems with the variable interest requirement, I think. One I mentioned, and I'll repeat, but one I didn't. Unemployment insurance—it must be obvious to the members of the committee—is a very complicated program. I have been working in this area for 30-odd years, and unemployment insurance and welfare are the two toughest programs to understand, actually, because they're similar in the sense that they're unbelievably complicated and they're not transparent. It's very difficult to really understand what's going on.
The variable entrance requirement makes the unemployment insurance program incomprehensible to Canadians, I think. For one thing, I don't think Canadians realize that the amount of money they'll get, or whether they'll even get a benefit, depends upon where they live. I mean, an unemployed person is an unemployed person, whether they live in a low-unemployment area or a high-unemployment area, as far as I'm concerned. I don't know how you can tell. You know, the premiums aren't based on unemployment regions. We don't have variable premiums that we pay to support it; we all pay the common premium, of course. But what you get at the end of it depends upon where you live.
It's unconscionable to me that we could have a program that discriminates in such a manner.
If you have a person who is unemployed and who lives in a low-unemployment area, that doesn't necessarily mean it's easier for them to find a job than an unemployed person who is in a high-unemployment area. It just doesn't compute for me. So that's the problem I have.
And not only does it affect your access to EI, but it affects the duration of benefits, because that also varies by the unemployment area. So, again, you've got two people, and let's say they both manage to get unemployment insurance, but depending upon the unemployment rate in the area they live in, they're going to get it for a shorter period or a longer period of time. I mean, I don't know how you say sorry, you get it for only 20 weeks, and you get it for 30 weeks, because you live in a different unemployment area.
Not only does it befuddle our understanding of the program, but I think it's just unfair. I don't see how we can. I mean, there are two great unfairnesses: one, most unemployed people don't get into the program; and, two, if they do get into it, what they get depends upon the unemployment rate in their area. I can't accept either of those.