Madam Speaker, I would like to start by congratulating my colleague on her magnificent speech and her extremely well-structured arguments.
If I may, I would like to address the question asked by the Liberal member who just had the floor about whether we are prepared to increase premiums. I would like to remind her that, in recent years, the EI fund has posted an average annual surplus of $3 billion to $4 billion. Every year, the government, whether Conservative or Liberal, has taken this surplus and transferred it to the consolidated revenue fund.
Had money not been taken out of this fund, which is paid for by employers and employees, we would now have a surplus of some $20 billion from the past five years alone. That could have financed all of my colleague’s proposals, including not only EI sickness benefits, but also compensation for the seasonal workers’ black hole, which is the five-week period between the end of their EI benefits and the date they return to work.
The money could also have been used for the preventive withdrawal of pregnant women. When these women return to work and then lose their job, their months on preventive withdrawal should not be taken into account in the determination of whether they are eligible for EI.
I would like to ask my colleague if she agrees that the implementation of the intentions stated in today's motion is not a matter of money, but a matter of political will.