Human Resources committee  Thank you, Chair, and members of the committee. Good morning. My name is Andrew Brown. I am the director general for Employment Insurance Policy at the Department of Employment and Social Development. Joining me is Rutha Astravas, director of Policy for EI Special Benefits. L

Human Resources committee  Let me echo what Rutha was saying there. We don't have a breakdown with respect to the reasons people are accessing sickness benefits. I can't speak to the situation of their using sickness benefits as a result of a grieving situation that renders them unable to work. What I ca

Human Resources committee  It would be too early for me to say whether it is working. We know that in the past, though, many people receiving sickness benefits.... There were about 379,000 people who claimed EI sickness benefits in that same year of 2016-17—

Human Resources committee  About 379,000 workers claimed EI sickness benefits. Among them, roughly 60,000 did some work while they were receiving EI sickness benefits. That's a group that we expect would benefit from these provisions of working while on claim, but we don't know what component of that group

Human Resources committee  If I simplify the context of the question a little bit, I would say that there are two important aspects to consider. First, there is access to the employment insurance system. Then, it is necessary to see if the regime contains measures that can meet the needs of families in the

Human Resources committee  I think it's absolutely fair to say that there has been adaptation, and I would describe that adaptation as significant over the years in terms of the EI program today versus where it was when it began over 75 years ago. If you take a look simply at the benefits that are now paid

Human Resources committee  The EI program at its heart is a labour market program, so it is seeking to ensure an efficient labour market. Where it began, when it took a look at job loss, was with the idea that when people lose their jobs, they would have some kind of income support while at the same time t

Human Resources committee  I'm going to start with that last point, just to say that we would see that the EI program, in terms of the income support that it can provide to workers and to families in this sense, would only be part of what they would need, and that's the part that I think we could speak to.

Human Resources committee  I don't know if there is any....

Human Resources committee  At the federal level, I'm not aware of counselling such as grief counselling, for example, that we provide for Canadians. I think that might be something that is administered at the local or the provincial level, in terms of an individual seeking support or help in coping either

Human Resources committee  Thanks for those questions. I think there are a lot of elements to that situation. I certainly can understand where that's coming in and the focus on compassion. I guess one thing I would mention right from the start is that for anything that's administered through the EI progr

Human Resources committee  It would be necessary to think about whether it would be within the EI program or—

Human Resources committee  Okay.

Human Resources committee  If there's a will to do it, then I think there is a way to do it, but I wouldn't want to give the sense that it's something that is easy to achieve either. In terms of something that is initiated by the death of a person, we would need to think about how that information, which i

Human Resources committee  I can certainly say that there are Service Canada agents who are trained for various sensitive situations. That said, I'm not aware of a specific line that would be available to parents who have just suffered the loss of a child. I would have to go back to Service Canada to ask a