I might be able to give you some hope by telling you that the first billion was voted for in about two minutes. It just took the political will to do it. On March 31 of this year, $10 billion of the surplus will be used to bring down the debt, unless the government decides to do something else with it.
Would it not be better to use just $3 billion to service the debt, and use the other $7 billion to increase the trust significantly and make that money available very quickly, as you request?
Measures should also be established to help workers. Ms. Carbonneau, I would like you to explain why some older workers can no longer re-enter the workforce in different jobs. Here in the House, we are often told that those workers could find jobs if they were ready to move. I would like you to provide some explanation.
With respect to putting more money into the trust, perhaps the government could invest part of the surplus in other instruments, short-term instruments such as refundable tax credits or something similar, instruments that would bring us to the point where next year we would no longer be in crisis-response mode. It would be better to invest the money now, rather than obsessively pay down the debt.