Human Resources committee  I don't believe so.

Human Resources committee  That's the purview of the umpire, a judicial....

Human Resources committee  I don't believe the monitoring and assessment report reports on the outcomes, since it's not a responsibility of the commission. It's a judicial body, so it wouldn't be. However, the commission is aware of the number of decisions within its purview that go to the umpire.

Human Resources committee  It's in the range of 20%.

Human Resources committee  Yes, it's about 20% of client appeals, which is similar, as I was indicating earlier, in the success rate of client appeals to the board of referees, which I said was 22% to 24% on average.

Human Resources committee  The commission has an overall responsibility for the administration of the EI program and the responsibility to premium payers for lawful and appropriate administration of the program. It's a dual responsibility in terms of the rights of the claimant as well as upholding the inte

Human Resources committee  There are three members on the board, and a Governor in Council appointee.

Human Resources committee  On the board of referees there are three members. There's a neutral chair--

Human Resources committee  --and there are two appointees. There's a list of board of referees developed by the commissioner for workers and one developed by the commissioner for employers. There are always the three: workers, employers, and a neutral chair.

Human Resources committee  The department supports the chair of the board of referees in undertaking the scheduling. They endeavour to do it in as timely a fashion as possible. In the majority of cases I think we would be able to identify such a conflict in advance and simply revamp the schedule to ensure

Human Resources committee  Do you want to add anything, Éric?

Human Resources committee  I would mention two things. As I mentioned in my remarks, when we first receive the appeal, the first step is to review the issue at hand. In many cases we will immediately conclude that there was an erroneous decision made and solve the matter right then. There's this first revi

Human Resources committee  This is before it even gets to the board of referees. We can review and take a second look at the actual decision that was made. That is the first step. The board of referees itself is generally a fairly informal hearing process compared to the more formal umpire hearing. There'

Human Resources committee  Our focus has been on trying to have a timely hearing. Our worry would be that if further steps were put in, it might slow down the ultimate hearing. It's not something we've actively considered.

Human Resources committee  I would have several things to say. First of all, most of the decisions of the Boards of Referees are unanimous. Differences of opinion among the panel members have not arisen very often. As I said, it is not up to me to talk about the appointment process. We have a role to play