Human Resources committee  It would create a lot more administration. The other thing to think about is that people don't have standard patterns of work, the way people thought about it in the past. If someone cannot work one day, is that one-fifth of a week or one-fourth of a week?

Human Resources committee  For us, it's a week. There are seven days in the week not five, and if they only work for some of them, it's very complicated to go below the unit of one week.

Human Resources committee  That's correct. That's how it worked previously.

Human Resources committee  I don't have that figure available immediately. I can tell you what the scope would be, in terms of the number of people who were affected. I'd have to get back to you on the dollar figure. It's about 60,000 Canadians annually who were doing some work while receiving EI benefits

Human Resources committee  I don't have that one available right now.

Human Resources committee  The rates are set according to a formula that essentially takes a look at the expected benefits that would be paid out over the coming seven years and what rate would need to be set to equal that.

Human Resources committee  That's what it is.

Human Resources committee  What I was just going to add to that is that this figure gets updated each year by the senior actuary for the EI program. An increase in benefits paid of about $170 million equates to a one-cent increase in the EI premium rate. That's where we are at the moment with current eco

Human Resources committee  That's what the impact would be because then any changes that are made to the EI Act get taken into account in the rate-setting process. The committee would not make that particular recommendation. It would be through the annual rate-setting mechanism.

Human Resources committee  Thanks, Krista. With respect to the EI program and a person with an episodic condition who is in the workforce, the benefit is not tailored specifically to those people. It is of general availability to workers who are dealing with an illness or an inability to work temporarily.

Human Resources committee  The way it could work in that particular situation is that when somebody opens an EI claim, typically it would be open for a 52-week period. If the only thing they're claiming during that time is the sickness benefit—it gets very complicated if there are multiple types of claims—

Finance committee  Thank you, Chair, for the introductions. Good evening, committee members. We are here to discuss the proposed changes to the Employment Insurance Act that will increase the number of weeks of parental benefits when they are shared, and related amendments to the Canada Labour Co

Human Resources committee  I think that there will always be obligations on us, even in tragic circumstances, so I don't know that it's possible to eliminate that entirely. I do think it would be possible to simplify the reporting of a death, but I have some notes of caution. We have seen a situation in th

Human Resources committee  I'm not aware of our department having explored that sort of additional support to people in the sense of compassion and being able to provide them with assistance at a time of grief. My reaction is one of some potential concern with regard to federal responsibility versus provin

Human Resources committee  Yes. I fully agree that this is a possibility.