Human Resources committee  It was in the Nova Scotia Teachers Union and the Canadian Teachers' Federation.

Human Resources committee  First of all, I'd like to start by saying that 99% of people who are on EI regular benefits do not want to be on EI. Special benefits, absolutely, but in the case of regular benefits, they don't want to be there. There's a very small percentage of people, I believe—and I hear from EI recipients every single day—who don't want to be working or looking for work.

Human Resources committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. Good afternoon everyone. I am pleased to be here today. I am so happy to see that the committee is studying the employment insurance program. It's something that certainly my colleague Nancy Amyot and I have been working towards for a very long time to see changes so that the program serves the Canadians whom it is supposed to serve.

Human Resources committee  I think that Stats Canada is a very important route to go. I think that Canadians have a lot of faith in Stats Canada and what they produce, but it doesn't mean that it's the only thing that we can do. The provinces should have a lot of input into this as well. It's one of the reasons why we need to be working together on it.

Human Resources committee  Not particularly....

Human Resources committee  Yes, but in looking at that I think it sounds very interesting and I'd like to look more into it.

Human Resources committee  It's covering some of the people who are eligible. Some of them are not taking advantage of it because they just don't have the information. It's another one of our issues that we really see when we talk to people about LMDAs; they don't know that the money's there. They don't know it exists.

Human Resources committee  You're right and it's a communication issue as well. I know I've had many young people present their case to me where they thought that they heard that they could get this money and go take this training. So they've done that, but the piece that they didn't do was that they didn't get approval from the province.

Human Resources committee  I haven't heard that specifically, but I'm fully aware about pensions, having worked a lot with pensions at the Nova Scotia Teachers Union. I don't have that information to share with you only because it hasn't really come up in my conversations.

Human Resources committee  I think they'd be useful because it's all about consultation. As I said, people want to have their voices heard, especially if they have a vested interest in what's going on. I think it's very important that these forums be established. I don't have the number one model in the world, but I know that there is a model in Quebec; there is a model in Newfoundland.

Human Resources committee  It is very difficult. If you're living in Nova Scotia and you're training for something, you don't necessarily have that solid, hard, accurate information on what is available in other areas or even what is available within your own province. We really need to have that really strong information.

Human Resources committee  Just for clarification, I spoke of a national harmonization program, so I'm not sure if I'm the one to say the curriculum should be the same all across the country. As an educator, we know that different areas have specific things that they want to relay, that they want to teach, and that they want to educate their people on.

Human Resources committee  Thank you very much, Jinny. I'll tell you that the facts you have cited are certainly correct. My stakeholders are well aware of that, and we have conversations around those issues consistently. This is one reason that labour feels very strongly that access to EI has to be relaxed.

Human Resources committee  That 0.8% translates roughly into $4.4 billion annually, but we're only using $1.9 billion. That has been in effect since 1996. When we did a little research the other day on how much $1.9 billion in 2014 translates into from 1996 dollars, it was much less than the $1.9 billion—

Human Resources committee  Thank you, Chair. Good morning, Mr. Chair and members of the committee. It is a pleasure to be here today to provide you with some views from the stakeholders who represent workers in Canada. It is indeed an honour and a pleasure to be here with you today before the committee in regard to the labour market development agreements.