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       Employment, Workforce Development and Disability Inclusion Minister Carla Qualtrough says departmental officials will start consultations and keep them going even during an election campaign.

       Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press

       Employment Minister Carla Qualtrough says a planned review of the sprawling employment insurance system will go ahead even if the country is plunged into a federal election campaign.

       Qualtrough says consultations will start next month on how the decades-old system can be modernized after its shortcomings were exposed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

       But looming over the consultation call is an anticipated federal election that labour and business groups have worried would kibosh the long-sought review.

       Speaking to The Canadian Press, Qualtrough says departmental officials will start consultations and keep them going even during an election campaign.

       She adds that the government doesn’t want a review to last for years, saying that the consultations will focus on a few key issues.

       Among the issues to be looked at will be who can access the benefit system, whether the value of benefits need to change, and how to pay for any changes given employers and workers fund EI through premiums tied to paycheques.

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