Mr. Speaker, with regard to (a), the Department has hired more than 400 additional new agents.
With regard to (b), it is not applicable.
With regard to (c), hiring began in October 2014.
With regard to (d), new agents have been assigned to employment insurance processing in: Moncton, St. John’s and Halifax in Atlantic region; Boucherville, Laval, Montreal, Quebec City, Saguenay and Shawinigan in Quebec region; London, Mississauga, Richmond Hill and Sudbury in Ontario region; and Vancouver, Kamloops, Nanaimo, Edmonton and Regina in Western Canada and Territories region.
New agents have been assigned to EI call centres: in Bathurst and St. John’s in Atlantic region; Montreal and Shawinigan in Quebec region; Sudbury and Toronto in Ontario region; and Edmonton in Western Canada and Territories region.
With regard to (e), the resources hired for the inventory reduction strategy are assigned to the various work units within EI processing to help reduce age and volume of the inventory.
With regard to (f), for EI processing, training generally took between 9 and 13 weeks, including the training and monitoring period. For EI call centres, training generally took nine weeks, including the training and monitoring period.
With regard to (g), it is not applicable.
With regard to (h), Service Canada has hired more than 400 new agents since October 2014 for EI processing and EI call centres.