Human Resources committee  When we do these kinds of calculations, there's no formal report. There are certainly projections, tables, etc.

Human Resources committee  Probably not in the configuration that it was exactly put there; I think what happened was that a working group was established that you were on—

Human Resources committee  Thank you very much for the question. I think we have an extremely good handle on what we think the costs and the revenues will be on this. We've gone through it in a fairly rigorous way. Why don't I provide you just a very brief explanation of what's involved in how we get t

Human Resources committee  In fact, we've done very careful calculations. As I pointed out before, these calculations were confirmed by our chief actuary. In the case of Quebec, I think the essence of your question is this: is the rate that's being proposed in Quebec, $1.36, fair for the sickness and comp

Human Resources committee  We can certainly use the current program as an indicator of what costs might be, but you have to remember that this is a different system, to some extent. The biggest driver here is—

Human Resources committee  I think, if I understand your question correctly, that in the present case we can certainly look at the 2008 report, the monitoring and assessment report. We can look at benefits paid and we can see exactly how many benefits were paid for sickness, compassion, and maternity and p

Human Resources committee  Thank you for your question. I will answer in English. To some degree, we can isolate this into two separate programs. But for the rest of Canada you have to consider that people are potentially benefiting from the maternity/parental benefits and the sickness and compassionate b

Human Resources committee  Thank you. The actuary--the same actuary who does the actual work for the EI account--and his team were completely involved in all the calculations and estimates that went into this program. We have a policy group that provides estimates and we have an actuarial group that car

Government Operations committee  The budget clearly spelled out the measures we were asked to implement, and under the guidance of the deputy minister we did so in a very diligent fashion.

Government Operations committee  Let me please turn to my colleague to answer that question.

Government Operations committee  Thank you for your question. In development of the economic action plan, a range of issues was considered, and certainly whether one eliminates the two-week waiting period or provides additional weeks at the end was assessed. We provided an estimate of how many people would be b

Government Operations committee  Perhaps I could just add one small clarification on that. It is important to recognize that the government froze the EI rate at $1.73 for 2009 and 2010, so that means this is providing a direct stimulus because the rates aren't going up, and that's a significant saving to both em

Government Operations committee  Thank you for that question. I think if you take the economic action plan as a whole, there's a whole range of measures out there, some that involve directly—

Government Operations committee  HRSDC's primary area was part of the Canada skills and transition strategy, which was essentially $8.3 billion over two years. Yes, we've talked here about vote 35 and to get the appropriations of $250 million for training, as well as two additional measures: the Canada summer jo

Government Operations committee  It's taxpayers' money, yes, absolutely.