Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Good morning and welcome to the Standing Committee on Finance.
My first question, or at least my first comment, is for Ms. Reynolds.
In your presentation, you talked about—and I think this is very relevant—your fear that the federal government will use the employment insurance fund for something other than employment insurance. You pointed out that it plans to increase premiums in 2011 and, at the same time, does not plan to raise taxes, all the while, paying down the deficit.
For some 15 years, the government has been using the $57 billion surplus in the EI fund to pay down the deficit. It is not an independent fund, and the money is generated by the employment insurance program.
There is real cause for concern over the future, both for businesses and for the workers paying into the system through their premiums.
One government after another, Liberal and Conservative alike, has failed to take responsibility for this situation.
You are right in stating very clearly that we need to avoid adopting such a measure and using that money to bring down the deficit. There are other ways to do it, and we should not, at least not now, plan to raise EI premiums. I think you are absolutely right to raise this issue.
I assume that when you say $57 million, you are talking about a comprehensive analysis of the past few years, and that your members called on you to put together such a report.