Thank you for joining us this afternoon, minister.

Canada’s unions are calling for a worker-first approach, especially in light of tariffs and tariff threats affecting key sectors like steel, aluminum and manufacturing, and in a context of profound job market transformation.

They want to see measures adopted that will protect job stability and promote proper working conditions, while ensuring that processing sector workers can transition to new skilled and stable jobs. How would you respond to them about this transition and their re-skilling?

Thank you for the question. We have several support measures in place for employees who are experiencing difficulties due to the tariffs.

For example, through the transformation of Employment Insurance, the Prime Minister directed our department and me to immediately ensure that: (a) any workers in tariff-threatened industries would not be subject to holdbacks from their first week of EI; (b) they would be able to obtain Employment Insurance immediately; and (c) long-tenured workers would receive an extra 20 weeks of Employment Insurance so that they would have time to be able to adjust to their new realities. On top of that, we are supporting provinces and territories with additional transfers for skills training.

For example, in the case of high layoffs in a plant like Algoma, Stellantis or any other place where there are large numbers of people suddenly unemployed, the provinces have the new fiscal capacity to be able to stand up re-skilling centres, retraining centres and job-seeking centres very quickly.

We know it is not ideal when a person is faced with sudden unemployment. Many times we hear from the opposition in the other place that workers don’t want EI. I would agree. If anyone has ever been on EI in this room — I certainly have — it is not a very secure time. However, I will tell you this: It is certainly better than nothing. Workers who are experiencing unemployment rely on —