Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise today in this House to defend the motion of my colleague from Bas-Richelieu—Nicolet—Bécancour, which states:
That, in the opinion of the House, the government should as quickly as possible implement a genuine income support program for older workers who lost their job in order to ease their transition from active employment to pension benefits.
Must I remind members that for 12 years, the Bloc Québécois has been calling on this House to put a stop to the injustice facing workers at the end of their careers who lose their jobs because of the ups and downs of the global economy?
Must I also remind members that during the last economic recession in the 1990s, the government renewed the program for older worker adjustment, commonly known as POWA? This program, in collaboration with the provinces, supported workers 55 and older who lost their jobs in massive layoffs by providing monthly benefits once their EI benefits had run out. This measure supported workers during a particularly difficult time so that they could find a new job or retrain, and was not meant to discourage them from returning to the labour force as some claimed.
Paul Martin's Liberal government abolished the program in 2005. Despite requests for assistance from all of the manufacturing sectors in Quebec and Canada that have been negatively affected over the years by economic globalization, the Conservative government has done no better since coming to power.
On one of its opposition days, the Bloc proposed measures to get workers out of the black hole they were facing. Our proposal was unsuccessful despite a majority vote in the House because the Conservatives have stubbornly refused to listen to workers who have fallen prey to this large-scale industrial transformation.
In 2006, the human resources minister proposed the targeted initiative for older workers, but all it set out to do was re-evaluate and recognize knowledge, skills and experience with a view to potential new fields of employment. The initiative supported workers with the potential to retrain, not those whose field of employment was at risk of disappearing entirely from Quebec and Canada.
In 2005, Canada's Employment Insurance Commission itself acknowledged that training programs for people aged 55 to 64, those too young to retire but too old to retrain successfully, were inadequate.
In too many cases, retraining does not result in employment. These workers find themselves back at square one and have to spend all of their savings just to make it to retirement age. Many of them have to resign themselves to living below the poverty line. I am sure everyone agrees that this is a rotten way to thank people who have spent their lives contributing to our society.
Since then, for nearly a year, the Conservatives have put off their 2006 commitment to assess the relevance of implementing a new program. Last year, when it was time to act, the government once again ducked out with neo-Liberal rhetoric about the regulatory power of the free market and re-skilling workers despite the fact that thousands of them have received no support while waiting for the market to make room for them and enable them to reach retirement with their dignity intact.
The Bloc Québécois has consulted workers and is now proposing a complete overhaul of programs for older workers to help people avoid this black hole.
In that sense, the new program will have to be designed for those workers 55 and over affected by mass layoffs or business shutdown, who can show a labour market attachment period of at least 10 years over the past 30 years and for whom the gap between the skills acquired and those required on the labour market is too large to allow them to find truly gainful employment in their own region.
To be eligible to the program, the workers will have to meet the various criteria I just outlined. Once their eligibility determined, older workers, men and women, would receive benefits that would allow them to maintain their real property assets.
It is important that older workers not suffer economic decline to the point of being forced to sell assets accumulated over many years of hard work, as they sometimes have to do when applying for employment insurance benefits. These workers are already grieving the loss of their jobs, on top of facing systematic rejection when trying to get hired during the months after they were laid off or the business they worked for shut down.
We believe it would be inhumane to add further to their hardship.
Therefore, the support provided through the program should match the income replacement rate under the EI program, and a minimum threshold should be established, as provided in the POWA since 1987.
As for the cap under this program, it would be the same as for EI, which is currently $447 per week. This would only add up to a few thousands of dollars each year, but it would still be enough to live on.
We have calculated that, if implemented tomorrow, the program would provide between $1,300 and $1,900 in support every month. Within these limits, the benefit level would be set the same way as for EI, that is, an income replacement rate of 55%, based on earnings before the mass layoff or business shutdown.
Regarding how this new program would be funded, the option selected was cost sharing between the federal government and the provinces, based on a 70/30 ratio, as it was for the POWA.
Finally, we are proposing that the mechanism included in the latest POWA with respect to amounts that can be deducted from support amounts under the new proposed program be retained, so as to take advantage of the consensus achieved by the two levels of government in that regard.
The need for this program rests, for the most part, on observations made by older workers who are dealing with a number of obstacles: their life-long skills are no longer in demand, they lack the relevant skills for positions in growth industries, they have lower levels of literacy and education, they lack experience in job searching and they are less willing to move because of all that. To them, moving might represent a heavy financial and social burden.
It should be noted that since the purpose of this program is to allow older workers to end their working lives in dignity, we think it is imperative to allow people to live where they see fit and not unduly force them to go where there might be jobs.
Contrary to POWA and the OWA program, admission to the recommended program, as proposed by the major unions, would be done on an individual basis and not collectively. That way, if an older worker loses his job after a business closes or after a mass lay-off and he meets the other conditions, he would be entitled to the program if the gap between the skills acquired and those required is too big for him to find truly gainful employment in the region, or employment at the average rate of pay for the region.
Furthermore, such a program is also needed because it is clear that job re-entry measures have not been producing any significant results nor can any be expected in certain cases. However, this situation could be different and could eventually change as more educated generations enter the age bracket of 55 and older. That is why we would like to see the new program reviewed every five years, either to adjust it or eliminate it altogether, if an analysis shows that the program is no longer fulfilling its mission.
The program that we are calling for is not only feasible, but for us, it is essential to taking into account the real situation facing older workers affected by mass layoffs or company closures, some of whom, despite their best efforts and good intentions, are unable to re-enter the work force.
I would remind the House that the Conservatives' bill, which provides an additional 5 to 20 weeks of benefits to long-tenured workers, does not address the same clientele.
Today's motion targets workers aged 55 to 64. In spite of the government's bill, the need persists for a bridge between EI benefits and the old age pension, which would be provided by an income support program for older workers.
We are talking about the implementation of a real income support program for older workers aged 55 to 64, and not long-tenured workers as defined by the government.
The measure we are proposing should be brought in immediately, out of respect for all older citizens who have worked their entire lives to build our society and who deserve much more than what the Conservative government is trying to give them.
