Thank you very much.
I want to thank you both for being here.
I want to say to Ms. Ngjelina that I think some of the challenges this committee has, and I'll just be frank with you.... We are studying the EI program, and I think the challenges that you've presented and the story that you shared with us encompasses so much. It encompasses autism and the strategy to help parents across this country with autism. You're addressing other social programs to assist parents who are in the same situation. It's definitely a challenge for this government, and I think for all of us, to find ways that the EI program can best serve self-employed individuals.
I want to thank you for bringing this forward. And I do want to tell you that the good news--and unfortunately it's too late for you, because you're already experiencing this--is that we are looking at providing maternal benefits to self-employed individuals. Part of that process, though, is that you have to pay in. EI is an insurance program. So you have to pay in and then you can receive some of the benefits. But I really want to thank you for sharing your story. I look forward to us solving some of these issues, even on a broader spectrum when it comes to autism and the challenges that you face. So thank you for that.
Ms. Spencer, one of the recommendations that you made, and I know you said this was your own personal recommendation, was that women who work part-time should be allowed to access EI. What I'm wondering, and here's our challenge, is do we create two systems, one for men and one for women? If we say women working part-time can access EI, how do we tell men working part-time that they're the wrong gender so they can't? That's the challenge. And how do we fund this? Because, again, at the end day, you have to pay in to EI so you can collect, and it has to be funded, because we have a responsibility to the taxpayers. Could you address that?