Employment Insurance  The EI program is not just about charging premiums and paying out benefits. This is where the labour market development agreements come in. Each year, the government provides $2 billion to all provinces and territories for employment programs and services.

Business of Supply  We will change that. We will develop more flexible parental benefits. We will be easing access to EI support for caregivers. The list goes on. However, there is one point I want to make with regard to my region and an absolutely pathetic move by the previous government. In trying to support the regional minister at the time, from my province, the government created two EI zones in Prince Edward Island.

Economic Action Plan 2013 Act No. 2  A time of economic weakness is not the time to increase EI premiums. Yes, the books have to be balanced over the longer term. Economists agree with that. However, that does not mean that we have to have increases in premiums every single year during a period of economic hardship.

Business of Supply  Madam Speaker, the hon. member will know that one of the elements in the government's budget is that EI premium rates will be frozen. The member will know that a previous Conservative member made an interesting argument. Everyone should understand that freezing EI rates would have no effect on stimulus.

Human Resources committee  We've also increased work sharing from 38 weeks to 76 weeks, helping small business, and at the same time reducing EI premiums from $188 to $161. That is 4¢ lower than we projected. I should say that it's projected to be $161; if everything goes as expected, it will be coming in at $161, a significant saving not only to workers, but especially to small businesses and employers.

Business of Supply  In addition, we plan to reduce EI premiums to allow employers and families to keep more of their money, to promote a fair and more efficient Canadian economy. Improving the EI system is not an easy task, so we want to give it the attention it deserves and get it right the first time around.

Employment Insurance  In particular, I will expect you to work with your colleagues and through established legislative, regulatory, and Cabinet processes to deliver on your top priorities: Improve our Employment Insurance (EI) system so that it is better aligned with the realities of today’s labour market and serves workers and employers. This would include: repealing the recent changes made to the EI system that have been punitive to unemployed workers; reduce EI premiums; undertaking a broad review of the EI system with the goal of modernizing our system of income support for unemployed workers that leaves too many workers with no unemployment insurance safety net; eliminating discrimination against immigrants, younger workers and parents re-entering the workforce so that they are treated the same as other workers in their region; reducing the wait time for new recipients to one week from the existing two week waiting period; working with the Minister of Finance to ensure that EI contributions are only used to fund EI programs; and working with the Minister of Public Services and Procurement to set transparent service standards for the delivery of EI benefits so that Canadians get timely access to the benefits to which they are entitled.

Employment Insurance  Mr. Speaker, the reforms to EI would ensure that more Canadians are able to access EI when they need it. We are committed to improving the EI program so that it is responsive to the needs of Canadian workers and employers, and also so that it meets our fiscal responsibilities to all Canadians.

Budget Implementation Act, 2016, No. 1  Speaker, I would like to add a few comments specifically with respect to small business. First, in the foreseeable future there will be EI reductions for small businesses. Therefore, small businesses will benefit from employment insurance reductions on their premiums. That can be a great thing for small businesses. Second, we understand that small businesses are the backbone of the economy.

Finance committee  On the EI premiums, my understanding is that there will be $1.88 this year, $1.88 the next fiscal year and then, due to the break-even components, it will decline down to $1.61. So there will be some relief for all businesses across Canada.

Small Business  In January, the tax rate went down from 11% to 10.5% for small business owners. Furthermore, we will be reducing EI premiums for small business owners. We are giving small business owners the support they need. We are growing strong consumers. Our middle-class tax cut, the Canada child benefit, all of these things will support customers and small business owners.

The Budget  Let us look at the facts: seven deficits, two recessions, the shell game of a surplus. Let us throw in the EI premium fund. Let us throw in the rainy day fund. Let us throw in the GM stocks. Perhaps that rainy day fund could have been used to help people in Alberta. No, the party opposite used it again to create a false surplus and to put itself up as stewards of the economy.

Business of Supply  Unfortunately, despite this new system, the government opted not to follow its own actuarial advice on where to set the EI premium rate in 2015. Instead, it chose to set the rate above the level needed to achieve the seven-year balance. The Parliamentary Budget Officer in his recent report said the setting of the EI premium rate in 2015-16 continues to be a concern and that this acted against the government's objective of ensuring EI premiums are set transparently and used only for EI benefits and administration purposes.

Employment  Speaker, we have been working since the day we were elected on fulfilling the promises we made. We want a system of EI that is going to be there when people need it and where they need it. We promised to lower premiums, cut benefit wait times from two weeks to one week, and improve flexibility for Canadians.

Business of Supply  Speaker, if I accept the member's false premise for a moment, I could turn the question on him and ask, why this fantastic amount of job-killing payroll tax hikes by the Conservatives when, as he just said, they froze the EI premiums, but all the experts are saying that circumstances call for a reduction? It is the member's government that has imposed artificially high payroll taxes in the form of EI premiums that are too high.