Finance committee  Our concern would be that there has already been a number or series over recent years of...in some cases premium holidays, and in some cases premium reductions. We too believe in evidence-based decision-making, and we don't think there has been any study, any solid data, that dem

Finance committee  Okay. In this respect, we recommend an EI training benefit. We used to have that. In the eighties, you could get maintenance benefits for up to two years if you were in approved training. Fourth, with the new report coming out any day now on the quality of services in Service Ca

Finance committee  Thank you for the welcome and for the invitation. The Inter-Provincial EI Working Group was formed in 2013, initially with coalitions in New Brunswick and P.E.I., Quebec common front groups, and the Good Jobs for All coalition in Toronto. We developed a joint statement on princ

Human Resources committee  I was just going to say that it might be worthwhile to think of targeting a higher benefit-to-unemployed rate. Currently it's at 40%. In my city, it's 21%. In Vancouver and Montreal, the largest cities in this country, the largest labour markets, it's below 30%. We used to have 7

Human Resources committee  Thank you very much. I'm speaking on behalf of the Inter-Provincial EI Working Group, which was formed in 2013, inspired by some of the EI coalition work in places like P.E.I. and New Brunswick, and of course groups in Quebec. As well, the Toronto-based Good Jobs for All Coaliti

Human Resources committee  Sorry about that. There are four areas that we want to cover. First of all, we're obviously pleased to finally see some changes to EI in the budget. We want to see some of those moved up, though, from the times that have been set, whether we're talking about the 910-hour rule f