Josée Beaudin

[Social Housing, December 4th, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, according to FRAPRU, 203,000 Quebec households spend over 50% of their income on housing. The Conservatives committed to spending $269 million on housing in Quebec. Despite the fact that the government's economic action plan states that this money is “committed”, we still have not seen one red cent of it on the ground.

What is the minister waiting for before it pays that money to Quebec?

[Fairness for the Self-Employed Act, December 2nd, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask my colleague a question since he spoke earlier of unfairness and injustice. I would like to ask him the question he asked me. Is the wrong made right because this is a voluntary program? That is my question for him.

Earlier, the member said that because the bill is voluntary we should let self-employed Quebeckers make that decision. I will ask him the following question. Is the wrong made right because this is a voluntary program? Is it not the job of parliamentarians to ensure that a bill is just and fair for everyone?

In my opinion, this bill needs work to do just that. It is not the Bloc Québécois that should bear the blame but the government because it did not support the amendment proposed by the committee members. The amendment only proposed making this a just and fair bill.

[Fairness for the Self-Employed Act, December 2nd, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, in fact, we already have the Quebec parental insurance plan.

We agreed with the principle of this bill. I do not see why workers in Quebec should not have access to special benefits. But can we hope to have a plan that is fair to Quebec as well? Why should we accept a bill that asks Quebeckers to pay three times what they should?

We can review these costs, especially since the former chief actuary has stated the costs and confirms what we are saying: Quebeckers will be paying three times what they should.

As a government, we must review the calculation so that it is fair to Quebec as well.

[Fairness for the Self-Employed Act, December 2nd, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his interesting question.

At the last committee meeting, we indicated that we wanted to meet with the former chief actuary, and the Conservatives refused this request. We wanted to hear what figures the former chief actuary could give us to justify and explain why Quebeckers will be paying far too much. I do believe that we will be meeting with him next week.

We also proposed an amendment before voting on this bill, an amendment that did not receive a majority vote, that would have also called for the government to review the amount paid by Quebec compared to the rest of Canada. When the bill is sent to the Senate, we will have to propose an amendment to look at the calculations of these costs to ensure they are fair.

[Fairness for the Self-Employed Act, December 2nd, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, I thank my committee colleague for his question.

In fact, the Bloc Québécois has always voted in the interests of Quebeckers. I repeat, the government's employment insurance measures do not meet the needs of Quebeckers. The program for long-tenured workers does not apply to Quebec forestry workers but is designed primarily for workers in the automotive sector.

The five additional weeks are only temporary and are not a permanent measure. Self-employed workers in Quebec already have access to parental leave. They now have access to compassionate care and sickness benefits. They will be paying three times too much. I do not believe that these self-employed workers, even if the program is voluntary, are interested in covering the entire cost of this project across Canada. It will take a much lower amount, a fairer amount, say 41¢, for them to be interested in signing up for employment insurance benefits for the self-employed. In fact, I am not sure that our Quebec workers are interested in paying for all other workers.

[Fairness for the Self-Employed Act, December 2nd, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his question. The department's former chief actuary has confirmed that the cost to Quebec is much too high. In fact, self-employed Quebeckers should pay 41¢ for every $100 earned in order for it to be fair.

Calculations are based on 2014, because the government will be re-evaluating this bill in five years. I believe that we should use specific years to evaluate all the ramifications.

We cannot have Quebeckers assume the cost of a program that is designed for all of Canada's self-employed.

[Fairness for the Self-Employed Act, December 2nd, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to have this opportunity today to speak to Bill C-56, the Fairness for the Self-Employed Act.

I should say at the outset that the Bloc Québécois is opposed to this bill. I do not think that will surprise anyone, in light of the questions I have been asking the past few days. Although we were absolutely in favour of the principle originally behind this bill, we cannot support it, because it would be blatantly unfair for self-employed workers in Quebec. The Liberals and the New Democrats can see this unfairness, but have not bothered to speak out against it. On the contrary, they have endorsed it.

Let us have a look at some of the aspects of Bill C-56. This bill would allow self-employed workers to be eligible for special EI benefits: maternity benefits, to a maximum of 15 weeks; parental or adoption benefits, to a maximum of 35 weeks; sickness benefits, to a maximum of 15 weeks; and compassionate care benefits, to a maximum of 6 weeks.

Contrary to what the Bloc Québécois called for, this bill does not enable self-employed workers to have access to regular employment insurance benefits, but only special benefits. That is important. I believe that self-employed workers themselves understand what this bill means for them. This bill will be implemented on a voluntary basis. Self-employed workers will voluntarily enrol and contribute. They will have to earn a minimum of $6,000 in the calendar year preceding their claim to be entitled to 55% of their income. They will have to enrol when they file their income tax return for 2009 in order to have access to benefits the following year. Consequently, a self-employed worker will have to have contributed for a whole year before he or she can access these benefits.

We cannot support the bill because of the contribution rate that has been set for self-employed workers in Quebec: $1.36 per $100 of earnings. Allow me to explain. Bill C-56 proposes to allow self-employed workers to contribute voluntarily to the employment insurance system. However, unlike salaried workers, they would be entitled only to so-called special benefits, which, as I said earlier, include maternity and parental benefits, sickness benefits and compassionate care benefits.

Since Quebec already has a mandatory parental insurance plan for both salaried and self-employed workers, it goes without saying that Quebec must receive some sort of compensation to reflect the fact that self-employed workers there cannot receive the same benefits as Canadian workers. Moreover, salaried workers in Quebec already pay lower EI premiums because they also pay into Quebec's parental insurance plan.

To come up with the reduced contribution rate, the chief actuary of the employment insurance commission makes a relatively simple calculation that he publishes each year in his annual report on the break-even contribution rate and the maximum insurable earnings for EI. This calculation is as follows: the actuary calculates the portion of expenditures that pertains to parental insurance leave. This portion is then subtracted from the contributions Quebec workers are required to make.

The reduction is direct and based on a calculation, which means that the compensation accurately reflects the portion of expenditures that pertains to maternity and paternity benefits. This is a fair and equitable way to set the contribution rate for Quebec workers.

But in the case of Bill C-56, the government is completely ignoring this logic and proposing a totally excessive and abusive contribution rate for self-employed workers in Quebec.

For some reason, the government has decided to ask self-employed workers to pay exactly the same premium as salaried workers, even though they are not entitled to the same benefits. In other words—and I think all my colleagues here know it—salaried workers receive compassionate care and sick leave benefits, but also regular employment insurance benefits. However, self-employed workers, as I was just saying, will only get special benefits. They will not receive regular benefits, but they are being asked to pay the same premium.

Salaried employees and self-employed workers will pay into the same fund. That seems illogical for the reasons I just mentioned.

That means that Canadian self-employed workers will pay $1.73 in premiums, which would allow them to receive the three so-called special benefits. Self-employed workers in Quebec will have to pay $1.36, but those premiums will allow them to receive just two of the three special benefits. It just so happens that those two benefits are by far the least expensive. If I am not mistaken, the compassionate care and sick leave special benefits represent roughly 25% of the cost, whereas parental leave benefits represent 75%.

It took the working group some time to get answers to its questions on Bill C-56. Nonetheless, according to the estimates that were finally forwarded to us by the Department of Human Resources and Skills Development, maternity leave benefits will probably represent 70% of the cost of this new plan for the employment insurance system. You do not need a math degree to know that by paying $1.36, or 79% of what Canadian self-employed workers will pay, Quebeckers are being had.

In other words, Quebeckers are being asked to provide 19% of the funding for the plan, but, according to the department's numbers, they will collect only 6% of the benefits. That is scandalous.

We all agree that it makes sense for insurance plans to spread the risk. That is a basic principle of insurance. Insurance of all kinds is a risk-sharing endeavour that requires all beneficiaries to assume a portion of the risk because they cannot predict what events might cause them to lose their income for one reason or another. What we take issue with, however, is the disparity between how self-employed Canadian workers are treated and how self-employed Quebec workers are treated. The Canadian portion of the plan will result in a huge deficit at a contribution rate of $1.73, while the Quebec portion will produce a huge surplus at a contribution rate of $1.36.

It is expected that the Quebec portion of the sickness and compassionate care benefits, the only benefits to which self-employed Quebec workers will be entitled, will cost some $22 million in 2014, whereas premiums collected from Quebec will amount to $45 million. In contrast, in Canada, also in 2014, benefit payouts will be on the order of $280 million and premiums, $178 million. In other words, the government is asking self-employed Quebec workers to absorb the deficit for self-employed Canadian workers.

Of course we believe that is unfair. And we are not the only ones. We asked Michel Bédard, who was the departmental chief actuary for over 12 years, to provide an estimate of what he considered to be a fair contribution rate for self-employed Quebec workers. As it turned out, Mr. Bédard confirmed our initial suspicions. The contribution rate to be imposed on Quebeckers will be outrageously high, and the return they get will be ridiculously low.

That is why the Bloc Québécois cannot support this bill.

We know that, generally speaking, this government's employment insurance measures in no way meet the needs of Quebeckers. I said so yesterday and I will say it again: the program for long-tenured workers does not apply to Quebec forestry workers. The additional five weeks are a temporary measure. Self-employed workers in Quebec already had access to parental leave, and the contribution rate for compassionate care and sickness benefits is three times what the rest of Canada will pay. So there is a serious problem regarding employment insurance.

We now realize that it is Quebeckers who are always paying for others, although improving the employment insurance system, as the Bloc Québécois as been proposing for several years now, would be a good way to help all workers. We therefore cannot support this bill for the reasons I have just given.

I encourage our NDP and Liberal colleagues, especially those from Quebec, to ask themselves some serious questions and examine this issue closely, because it is very clear that self-employed workers in Quebec will be the ones to foot the bill for everyone else when it comes to this employment insurance fund.

[Employment Insurance, December 2nd, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, self-employed workers in Quebec and the other contributors will be paying too much in EI premiums for the coverage they receive. According to the calculations of the former EI chief actuary, they are being asked to pay three times too much for access to sickness and compassionate care benefits.

When will this government stop diverting employment insurance funds that could be used to improve the EI system?

[Employment Insurance, December 2nd, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, taking advantage of the update to the economic action plan, the Conservative government confirmed that it plans to use the employment insurance fund to pay down the deficit. In addition to the $54 billion it has already stolen from this fund, the government plans on taking another $19 billion between now and 2015.

Instead of collecting excessive premiums and making the unemployed pay down the deficit, does the government not think it is time to improve the employment insurance system?

[Employment Insurance, December 1st, 2009]

Mr. Speaker, this government's employment insurance measures do not meet the needs of workers in Quebec. The program for long-tenured workers does not apply to Quebec forestry workers; the additional five weeks are a temporary measure; self-employed workers in Quebec already had access to parental benefits, and the contribution rate for compassionate care and sickness benefits is three times too high.

When will the Conservative members from Quebec stand up for Quebec workers?