Senator Bellemare: As you know, Quebec is dealing with a serious labour shortage. In September, Quebec’s job vacancy rate was 7.3%, which amounts to 280,000 unfilled positions. This is unprecedented in Quebec or anywhere else.

In the meantime, the number of people actively looking for work was more than 255,000. To address this problem, yesterday the provincial government announced a $3.9-billion five-year plan to provide bursaries and allowances for people willing to participate in training and skills development in certain key sectors.

Senator Gold, don’t you think we could make better use of EI to address these problems?

As the Government Representative in the Senate, you are also able to share our questions with the government. I would like to make a small suggestion. Why doesn’t the government task the Senate with conducting public consultations on employment insurance in the provinces? These reports could then be sent to the government with a view to reforming the system. What do you think?