Excuse me, Mr. Speaker.
Under the previous government and under the then finance minister from the riding of LaSalle--Émard, there were massive cuts to social programs and major cuts to employment insurance.
Just to give an example, in 1990 about 87% of unemployed workers received employment insurance benefits. Today only about 40% of workers receive benefits. In my province of Ontario, that number drops to about 30%. In my city of Toronto, only about 20% of unemployed workers receive benefits.
These attacks on employment insurance were not just about balancing the books. They were about creating a flexible labour market and about creating insecurity among working people as part of a cheap labour market strategy. Many workers had the rug yanked out from underneath them.
The message was that when workers lost their job, they had to immediately grab any job. Many people ended up taking huge cuts to their income and this created incredible distress. Yes, today we have lower unemployment today, but we also have greater poverty and a growing gap between the wealthy and people at the lower end of the spectrum.
As a result of the rule changes that were made to EI by the previous government, fewer workers qualified for EI benefits so the fund built up substantially. Rather than improving or restoring those insurance benefits to help working people during a changing economy, the money that had been paid into the fund by working people and employers built up and the previous government dipped in with both hands and over $50 billion was used as general revenue. What other insurance plan would we pay premiums into where those premiums go not for insurance benefits, but for something completely different?
It is really quite ridiculous that this fund has been plundered the way it has. It is more than ridiculous; it is fundamentally unjust. That money was designed to help the people who paid into the plan and is being used for other purposes. As EI is currently structured it is failing many unemployed adults who pay in and simply cannot get the benefits.
As a result of the cuts of the previous decade many of our social programs, and especially this important workplace adjustment program of EI, have been eroded. This is of national importance not only for the individuals affected but because it tends to cut the ties that bind Canadians.
People saw our government as being responsible for programs like medicare and unemployment insurance, and increasingly these have been frayed at the edges or downloaded to other levels of government that I think it really does fray the ties that bind our country together. That is another consideration for us at the national level.
Sometimes people wonder what government is good for when they are in distress, lose their job, and have trouble putting food on the table. What they thought was there as a support for them in their time of need is not available for them.
Unemployment is low. Personal debt is high. Many people are working harder than ever, and the gap is growing between the rich and the poor. Most people just work paycheque to paycheque. We need governments to stop plundering EI funds. That has to stop.
I support the goal of forcing the government's hand out of the EI fund. What government does need to do is improve the benefits of EI and improve the access to EI to ensure that the principle of the fund, which is to provide the best possible adjustment for unemployed workers, becomes a reality once again in Canada.
It can only become a reality if working people who need the fund get access to the fund. The premiums that are paid for employment insurance must be used for that purpose and be available to working Canadians when they need it.
