Mr. Speaker, I remind the member for Markham—Unionville that the EI system we now have, with the variable rate, was instituted in 1997 when his government was in power. The unemployment rate then was 8.4%, a full 0.7% higher than what we have today.
What we have done is add a number of initiatives, calculated at over $4 billion, to help those who need help most when the economy is going the way it is today.