Human Resources committee  I think about two main considerations. One is really with respect to employers. An important thing when we think about the EI program is not just the worker but the employers, and the two are funding this program. If we are creating a benefit that could be paid on a weekly basis, there would have to be thought about whether there are equivalent leave provisions of some kind that would be made on a daily basis, and whether we would be creating some kind of a burden on employers who would be required to allow someone to be off.

Human Resources committee  A tremendous change would be required to manage taking benefits on a daily basis as opposed to a weekly basis. That would be so for a lot of reasons. From an internal perspective, internal to more the Service Canada side of things, we would see an increase in the individual number of claims, because somebody who was perhaps making a claim for one week might claim two—

Human Resources committee  That's correct. That's how it worked previously.

Human Resources committee  I don't have that figure available immediately. I can tell you what the scope would be, in terms of the number of people who were affected. I'd have to get back to you on the dollar figure. It's about 60,000 Canadians annually who were doing some work while receiving EI benefits.

Human Resources committee  I don't have that one available right now.

Human Resources committee  The rates are set according to a formula that essentially takes a look at the expected benefits that would be paid out over the coming seven years and what rate would need to be set to equal that.

Human Resources committee  That's what it is.

Human Resources committee  What I was just going to add to that is that this figure gets updated each year by the senior actuary for the EI program. An increase in benefits paid of about $170 million equates to a one-cent increase in the EI premium rate. That's where we are at the moment with current economic conditions.

Human Resources committee  That's what the impact would be because then any changes that are made to the EI Act get taken into account in the rate-setting process. The committee would not make that particular recommendation. It would be through the annual rate-setting mechanism.

Human Resources committee  Thanks, Krista. With respect to the EI program and a person with an episodic condition who is in the workforce, the benefit is not tailored specifically to those people. It is of general availability to workers who are dealing with an illness or an inability to work temporarily.

Human Resources committee  The way it could work in that particular situation is that when somebody opens an EI claim, typically it would be open for a 52-week period. If the only thing they're claiming during that time is the sickness benefit—it gets very complicated if there are multiple types of claims—they can claim those 15 weeks over that 52-week or one-year period.

Finance committee  Thank you, Chair, for the introductions. Good evening, committee members. We are here to discuss the proposed changes to the Employment Insurance Act that will increase the number of weeks of parental benefits when they are shared, and related amendments to the Canada Labour Code.

Human Resources committee  I think that there will always be obligations on us, even in tragic circumstances, so I don't know that it's possible to eliminate that entirely. I do think it would be possible to simplify the reporting of a death, but I have some notes of caution. We have seen a situation in the last year—you know I'm going beyond my department here—of Canada Revenue Agency improperly believing a person to be dead, which resulted in terrible consequences to that person.

Human Resources committee  I'm not aware of our department having explored that sort of additional support to people in the sense of compassion and being able to provide them with assistance at a time of grief. My reaction is one of some potential concern with regard to federal responsibility versus provincial responsibility.

Human Resources committee  Yes. I fully agree that this is a possibility.