Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Human Resources Development come up with a bill entitled an act respecting employment insurance in Canada. I would suggest, as mentioned in the amendments, that it be called an act to amend the Unemployment Insurance Act because, outside of an election campaign, can the government promise that this bill is going to create jobs? I do not believe it will.
I would like to talk about the people in my riding, the citizens of Shefford and Granby, the two main cities I represent. I am always quite surprised to hear that the federal government intends to work in co-operation with the private sector and the provinces to collectively invest in job creation. You may have recognized an excerpt from the throne speech.
This point is directly connected with the promises made by the federal government to strengthen the Canadian economy and the regions by withdrawing from programs aimed at helping businesses and by making deep cuts to the unemployment insurance program. In a way that is just as contradictory, in its last budget, the federal government announced plans, for 1996-97, for an unprecedented reduction of transfer payments to the provinces, and drastic cuts in social programs, especially unemployment insurance.
In its last throne speech, the government said that the economic situation was not as bad as it seemed in this country, and that if it was not much brighter it was the fault of private businesses. In my area, 6,000 people signed a petition circulated by the Granby board of trade, asking this government to keep the employment centre in Granby open. The government ignored it. We also have organizations such as the regional development council, trades and merchants associations, which are working very hard, and I believe it is unfair for the government to be blaming these people.
Since the unemployed, students and welfare recipients have already been hurt by the reforms contained in last year's budget, the government should find other ways of getting money.
When will the Liberal government admit frankly that it made a mistake in choosing to pick on the have-nots of our society and that now it is leaving it up to the more affluent classes to determine what they will contribute to the overall sacrifice. How will the government force the wealthy to do their share, now that the small taxpayers are overburdened?
For 1996-97, the shortfall under the Canada health and social transfer will represent, for Quebec alone, $765 million in lost revenues for education, manpower training and other social programs. The unemployment insurance reform will cost Quebecers another $534 million in 1996.
This represents a total of $1.3 billion that Quebec will not receive. The reduced unemployment insurance benefits mean less money for low income taxpayers. We all know that these benefits only pay for food, rent and other basic needs of life.
When the federal government says it will work in agreement with the private sector and the provinces, what does it mean? How will the government do that? What practical measures, what action will be taken? Will it simply impose on the private sector and the provinces its own rules and national standards?
Let us take my region for example, and more specifically the case of Granby, the largest city in the federal riding of Shefford. Granby now receives $30,700 in lieu of taxes for federal offices. It is quite simple, if there were no federal government, things would not change much in my riding since Granby receives only $30,700.
Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, with a population slightly smaller than that of Granby and a much slower growth rate, receives $5 million from the federal government in lieu of taxes. The amount is $643,000 in Saint-Hyacinthe. Imagine, $643,000 in Saint-Hyacinthe, and $30,700 in Granby. That is what the federal government means in our region.
Not only do Granby and the region receive very little from the federal government, but now the government wants to cut a whole series of services and programs. Among other things, in Granby, the employment centre would be replaced by a service point. If this trend persists, there will be practically no federal services left in our region. Where is the rightful share of Granby and its region in the redistribution of wealth?
The taxpayers of the riding of Shefford are tired of paying and getting nothing in return from the central government. However, Ottawa is right on one point: from now on, we have to rely on ourselves, on the energy and resources of our own regional business community, without any help from the federal government. That is already what we are doing. We are not relying on the federal government which is gradually pulling out.
In the next few months, the action plan from Ottawa for the riding of Shefford will reduce by more than three quarters the number of employees in the Granby employment centre. It is ironic, but it is the truth, and I think it should be condemned here. Shortly, the majority of employees in the employment centre will be out of a job. The closing of this employment centre is an irrational, even indecent, decision. That situation is unacceptable. People and organizations in the area, including the Chamber of Commerce and the various municipalities in the riding, will never accept this situation.
Soon, the city of Granby, the regional capital of my riding of Shefford, with more than 67,000 constituents, will have only one post office and one RCMP detachment left, plus two or three other points of reduced services.
I will give the House another example, to show to what extent Ottawa is pulling out despite its promise to stimulate employment.
In 1994, $386,488 were allocated for job creation for students in Granby and the area. In 1995, these funds from the Department of Human Resources Development dropped to less than $207,000, that is a budget cut of almost half in less than a year. This year, prospects for students are a little more generous, $257,000, but we are far from what we had before.
So, when Liberals promise to do more and better for the economy, they could not do worse. The federal government's apathy in Shefford is blatant. Even the Chamber of Commerce of Granby has proved it by circulating a petition, as I said earlier. It collected 6,300 signatures of people asking for that the employment centre in Granby be maintained, and that was refused. The petition was tabled here in the House and the response was negative. For this government, Granby and Shefford no longer exist, do not exist.
The only thing Ottawa managed to do was to unite all social and economic stakeholders, no matter their political allegiance, against the federal government's reforms and especially against the proposed unemployment insurance reform. People in Shefford have a long memory and will remember this Liberal government that does not recognize them.
