Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I really see these changes in the Employment Insurance Act as part of an overall approach by this government to depress wages in Canada. We heard Mr. Martin talk earlier about the impact of the elimination of the Fair Wages and Hours of Labour Act, which would undermine wages in the construction sector.
We certainly heard the minister announce in the House the change to the temporary foreign worker program, which would shorten the amount of time employers are required to search for Canadians to fill jobs. Then they can pay temporary foreign workers 15% less. There's no credible economist who believes that this will not depress wages in Canada.
Then we come to the EI provisions. They also will have the impact of depressing wages. The government would like to perpetuate the myth that somehow people aren't looking for work. In my city, in Toronto, fewer than 30% of unemployed workers even qualify for EI. And according to StatsCan, there are six unemployed workers for every job opening in Canada. So it's not as if people are not looking for work.
The reality is that we have a job shortage in this country. And we still have not regained the level of employment, in proportion to the population, that we had prior to the downturn in 2008. We still have elevated unemployment. So at the very time when there is a job shortage and an inability, for the majority of unemployed people, to even access EI, we're seeing a restriction on people's ability to get EI.
There's also the myth perpetuated by the government that somehow people have this EI dependency, as though it's substance abuse. Again, the reality is that most people don't even qualify for EI. Even among those who do, many qualify for just a very limited period of time. Remember that the maximum EI benefit is only 55% of a person's former wages. I don't know a lot of Canadians today who could take a 50% pay cut and think that somehow that's living high on the hog. Most people are living paycheque to paycheque. Personal debt is at an all-time high. While some employers might think that depressing wages has a short-term benefit, longer term it will be a net drag on the economy. It will slow the purchasing power of Canadians, and it will slow our growth if Canadians do not have purchasing power.
People may think that it is just people who lose their jobs who will be affected by the impact of these changes to EI, but the impact of depressing wages will affect all Canadians, or I guess 99% of Canadians. It will affect the ability of people in a variety of industries, not just in terms of making progress in improving their wages but in terms of even maintaining their wages and benefits. They will see that undermined by these changes to EI, because as we've heard from our colleagues here, the changes will force people, much more quickly, to take jobs outside their fields at a much lower rate of pay.
The current provisions describe what a suitable job is and what the job search needs to look like. It gives people time to adapt to unemployment so that they can find other jobs.
What's the point in a welder from New Brunswick taking a temporary job in the service sector when perhaps with a longer job search and a little more support, that person could go to Alberta and get a job in their profession, where there may be a shortage of welders at a given point?
It also seems very convenient, at a time when the government is pushing hard for a rapid expansion of pipeline building, an expansion in the energy sector, that hiring in this sector could be at a lower rate of pay. We've heard several members on the opposite side complain not only about a shortage but the cost of wages in that sector. This could have the impact, especially with the cancellation of the fair wage act, of reducing the standard of living and the wages of people in that sector.
It's only a few clauses in the budget implementation act. The minister did not provide a lot of details. We had ministers providing conflicting details. It was only after a lot of pressure in the House and in the media that during a break week, when Parliament wasn't sitting, the minister felt compelled to release more details about these changes. The key point is that it does concentrate more power in the hands of the minister who can make subsequent changes without having to bring them to Parliament. That could mean the downward pressure on wages and on unemployed workers could grow even stronger in the months and years to come.
We're going to be voting against most of these clauses for the reasons I and my colleagues have outlined. It's something that not just unemployed workers but all Canadians should be concerned about.
Thank you.