Finance committee  That would be a very different policy mechanism that would be difficult to implement for our administrative folks. The amount of systems changes and operational changes involved are really quite considerable. That's been one of the core principles of why lists are typically prefe

Finance committee  It comes back to the sequence of an amendment requiring a royal recommendation. There isn't one at this time, so the staging doesn't follow that sequence.

Finance committee  This would be related to the discussion yesterday of the structure of the policy, which starts benefit access in January of 2015 on a reach-back basis, in which case the further we move from that base period makes the policy intent much less applicable to this policy measure. Th

Finance committee  You're right, Mr. Chair. That is the criterion by which the list is selected; but the structure of the legislation is to name the listed regions, as we have done in the past with any number of pilot projects that provided benefits on a regional basis. That has an administrative l

Finance committee  It's a bit of a complex answer to your question. There is a well-established practice within the employment insurance program to introduce policy changes via pilot projects that follow a list of named regions. This has been the case in the past with any number of measures. We ca

Finance committee  I have, sir. This change requires a royal recommendation, which we do not yet have. Until that has been established, that's the timing issue that would prevent it from being considered now. It's somewhat of a parliamentary issue as much as a substantive policy issue, but that

Finance committee  In the current budget, the government has committed itself to holding consultations in order to determine which measures will be proposed in the 2017 budget. We have started working towards that goal. The costs will correspond to the definition chosen. It is important to establi

Finance committee  Thank you for the question. The definition of long-tenured workers, just to start there, is someone who has contributed at least 30% of the maximum employee contributions into the program in seven of the last 10 years and has not drawn more than 35 weeks of EI regular benefits i

Finance committee  There are two types of measures in the budget. There are those that will be implemented by the bill, including the waiting period, provisions for new entrants and re-entrants to the labour force, as well as changes with regard to the extension of benefits. These are the three me

Finance committee  That's exactly correct.

Finance committee  I'm happy to speak to that. The cost for the additional three regions that the Prime Minister announced would be $214 million in the two-year period that follows the budget and $241 million over the entire span of the program, because some people will continue to collect benefits

Finance committee  In a given year, 1.8 million Canadians receive EI benefits, and 1.3 million receive EI regular benefits.

Finance committee  The annual cost is tracking right now just short of $16 billion in the combined set of benefits.

Finance committee  That's a wide question, Mr. Chair.

Finance committee  The fishing benefits date to the 1950s and target self-employed workers. In recent years the program has extended employment insurance special benefits to the self-employed, but not the fishing benefits that you described. Why a program wasn't expanded is beyond my scope to comme