Madam Speaker, the remarks of the member for Madawaska—Restigouche give me an opportunity to detail the many steps that our government has taken recently to help unemployed Canadians and their families during this difficult economic slowdown.
Obviously, there can be a number of reasons behind any delay, but we have taken a number of steps to mitigate delays. Losing a job is a particularly trying time for anyone. There is no question or doubt about that. Unfortunately, too many Canadians are going through that right now. That is why we have taken action to make sure that we are processing their EI claims just as fast as we can.
We recognize the increased need for processing capacity and to that end, we have acted and will continue to act to meet the needs of Canadians in this regard. To this effect, we have allocated an additional $60 million for EI processing, including hiring additional staff in order to ensure Canadians who need help are getting it as soon as possible.
Beyond this, we have taken many steps to meet the increased demand. We have hired and trained additional employees and recalled recent retirees. Call centre agents are working overtime on a voluntary basis. Hours of services have been extended and workloads are being shared to accelerate the speed of payment and to ensure Canadians in all regions receive uniform service. We are also increasing the automation of the claims process.
Through these measures, we have processed significantly more claims this year than over the same time last year, and we continue to take action to meet increasing demand.
Through our economic action plan, we have invested an unprecedented $8.3 billion in the Canada skills and transition strategy. This strategy will strengthen the benefits for Canadian workers, enhance the availability of training and keep EI premium rates frozen.
Never before has there been such a concerted effort to reach out and help Canadians. Among our many actions, we have extended the duration of EI benefits by expanding nationally a pilot project which already provided five extra weeks of EI benefits to EI claimants in areas of high unemployment. We have also increased the maximum duration of EI benefits available under the EI program from 45 to 50 weeks. Over 400,000 Canadians will benefit from these measures in the first year alone.
While we are pleased that the unprecedented stimulus measures we proposed in our economic action plan are now starting to take effect, we recognize that the challenges faced by those who have lost their jobs in this difficult time, through no fault of their own, is something that we need to help them with.
We will continue to monitor the effectiveness of these measures to make sure that the EI system is working and responding effectively to the evolving economic circumstances. We will do what we can to stay with those who need us at this time.