Mr. Speaker, I will try to speak slowly for the translators, if that is the issue. Some members are saying that I should start from the beginning, but in the interest of time I really cannot.
I thought it was important that we revisit some of the historical context of the need to reform the EI system, because when the Liberals gutted the system they made a devastating impact in the riding I represent.
There was $20 million a year of federal money that used to come into my low-income riding. The same was true for Winnipeg North, represented by my colleague. She lost $25 million a year. Some ridings in Newfoundland lost $50 million a year of unemployment insurance money that used to come into their communities and was spent locally.
The Liberals gutted that system. They changed the rules to the point that virtually nobody qualified anymore. It ceased being an insurance program and it became an income tax again. It was a payroll tax that they used as a cash cow to pay for anything they could think of.
This is why we welcome this opportunity to try to flow some of that unemployment insurance money into the pockets of unemployed workers, where it properly belongs. That was the intent, purpose and mandate of the unemployment insurance fund. It was to provide income maintenance, not to be a cash cow for the Liberal Party. We wonder where that $54 million of accumulated surplus went. This is the shocking thing.
Now we have an opportunity to do the right thing. We have workers who, through no fault of their own, find themselves unemployed due to the economic downturn. Their unemployment insurance is going to run out. The last thing we want to do is have an election now. That would preclude the possibility of any EI reform, because we would be on the hustings instead of in Parliament facing the legitimate problems our constituents are dealing with.
We welcome the opportunity to make Parliament work. It is said so often here that it is almost a cliché, but that is why we were sent here. If we lose sight of that, we do not deserve to be here. I can say with complete comfort and confidence that we are doing the right thing by enabling this $1 billion to flow into the pockets of the unemployed.
That is not to say that we will stop seeking unemployment insurance and other program reforms. The NDP has 12 private members' bills in the system calling for the reform of various other aspects of EI and those will percolate through the system. We can debate them, bring them to committee and discuss them, but that should not preclude moving forward with one positive development that we do have the power to initiate now to get that money flowing into unemployed people's pockets.
The unemployment insurance system is just that: an insurance program. It is mandatory. The problem with the system now is eligibility. What would one think of a house insurance program that a person was forced to pay into, yet if their house burned down they have a 40% chance of being able to collect any benefit? One would not call that an insurance program at all. They would want the head of the insurance agent who sold them that worthless insurance policy.
That is almost how unemployed people feel in this country today. They are forced to pay into this employment insurance system and they have about a 40% chance of being able to collect anything should the unfortunate reality of finding themselves unemployed come about.
The system is broken; the wheels have fallen off it. The heart and soul of it was ripped out by the Liberal Party in the most ruthless and heartless period of Canadian history, where they undermined and gutted virtually every social program by which we define ourselves as Canadians. They ripped the heart out of it.
We gave them the opportunity for far too long to rule this country. They left no stone unturned to undermine every social program by which we define ourselves as Canadians. They were the most neo-conservative, right-wing government in the history of Canada, and they should be condemned for it.
I do not use the terms lightly when I say that they were gutless, heartless and spineless, and they are exhibiting the same characteristics today. They are often mean-spirited in their development of policies. We gave them far, far too long.
The really unforgivable thing about the Liberals is how they chose to pay down the deficit on the backs of the unemployed by milking the unemployment insurance system like some cash cow.
The second thing they did was to take the $30 billion surplus from the public service pension plan. They did not share that with the beneficiaries of the plan. They did not share that with public servants. They took the whole $30 billion by legislative edict. The last thing Marcel Massé did in this House of Commons before he slunk out of here with his tail between his legs was that he grabbed the whole $30 billion out of the public service pension plan so they could put it into their Liberal slush funds and do God knows what with it. That is how they paid down the deficit when they were given the opportunity.
This is why I say with great pride that I am going to do what I can to put $1 billion back into the pockets of working people that was denied them by the last regime in this House of Commons.
We have an opportunity today. The last thing we want to do is delay the flow of this money by having another election at this time, because it would be a guaranteed eight weeks before anybody could take any action to assist people whose employment insurance is running out.
We are going to do the right thing. We are going to get that money flowing at the earliest possible opportunity.
