Status of Women committee  If you extrapolate from the current program and assume the same kind of take-up rates on the part of the self-employed...but it is a hypothetical question at this point. I think it's not unreasonable to assume, with the same kinds of design parameters, that the self-employed popu

Status of Women committee  Clearly we'd have to do a pretty thorough analysis of the nature of the recommendations, but the employment insurance program is a program that is financed by employers and employees.

Status of Women committee  I apologize.

Status of Women committee  Okay. I will ask Mr. Thompson to answer your questions.

Status of Women committee  Yes, basically. In terms of the comparison of the total premiums paid by women compared to the benefits that are drawn, women are net beneficiaries and men are net contributors.

Status of Women committee  That's right. It's because of the nature of the benefits. Women tend to benefit disproportionately to men from some of the special benefits we see across...obviously, maternity. That's a women's benefit, but even in terms of parental, we're still seeing a very large take-up on th

Status of Women committee  That's right.

Status of Women committee  Could I just go back to the OECD, the post-secondary, just to make sure I was clear with the committee members? It's 60% of Canadian women, not 60% of OECD.

Status of Women committee  That's right, which is compared to the similar statistic for other countries in the OECD at the highest.

Status of Women committee  I will do my best. I will ask Mr. Thompson to answer the second question, because he is more familiar with the details of the program. Maybe if I could, though.... I apologize, but I would like to continue in English, because the details are a little technical and— I don't wa

Status of Women committee  Under regular benefits we know that on average men used about 19.1 weeks and women used 18.8 weeks. It is true that a larger proportion of women than men exhaust their benefits: 34.4% of women used up all the weeks of benefits they were entitled to receive in 2005-06 and 26.3%

Status of Women committee  The figures in the updated monitoring and assessment report will update that. They'll have to be tabled in the House before they can be made publicly available.

Status of Women committee  You can appreciate, Ms. Neville, the thoughts I have on how government should be reacting would be advice I'd provide to the minister.

Status of Women committee  I can tell you, though, that I think adding the extra five weeks of benefits, the additional duration of employment insurance benefits that was passed with the Budget Implementation Act, is designed to get at your point around exhaustion of benefits. It will be some time—at least

Status of Women committee  As members of the committee will know, the advice we provide to ministers is not something we discuss openly. I can tell you the process, and I think that's probably the nature of your question, Ms. Neville. We look at a wide range of considerations in terms of conducting our po