Good evening and thank you for your invitation.
I am going to be speaking to the part on unemployment insurance.
What I basically see is that this bill is making the dissolution of the Canada Employment Insurance Financing Board official. It was created in 2008 in order to respond to several concerns that had been voiced by the labour movement. The purpose was also to improve the transparency and independence in the managing of the Employment Insurance Fund and to compensate for the misappropriation of funds. Sixty billion dollars had been taken from the employment insurance surplus.
The board was intended to respond to these concerns and to establish a $2 billion reserve. It would have done so had the legislation been implemented. The funds would have come out of the Consolidated Revenue Fund. It would have been a way to deal with the resentment. By dissolving the Canada Employment Insurance Financing Board, one will also be eliminating this reserve that, of course, never existed ultimately. It could have existed. Two billion dollars would have perhaps somewhat stabilized the employment insurance system during an economic downturn. I think it was a prudent decision.
Now it looks like the idea is to make sure that the Employment Insurance Fund is merely sufficient. There is simply an attempt to balance the numbers, that is all. That may become more difficult if there is an economic downturn. If premium increases are kept at 0.05%, that is one way of ensuring that the system will not be able to adapt during an economic downturn, I believe.
There is something else that we are quite concerned about. When these kinds of caps are set that prevent increases in premiums and when the board and the idea of a reserve are abolished, then the funds themselves are limited. We feel that doing this puts an end to any ability to improve the system that, in our opinion, does not adequately fulfil its mission because it is not adequately protecting the unemployed. Improving the system and providing real protection become impossible when premium increases are so rigidly set.
Several stakeholders spoke about the Hiring Credit for Small Business. Replacing employment insurance premiums and employers' premiums in this way was supposedly meant to foster hiring, employment, etc. In our opinion, this measure does that goal a disservice. Yes, the social security contributions of employers are reduced, but does that foster employment? We doubt it.
Furthermore, this measure is a way of removing the burden from employers having to face the problem of unemployment. I realize that some may be pleased about this measure, but we feel that the part of the bill on unemployment insurance does not necessarily go in the direction that we feel it should. Premiums will be reduced, the amount of money in the account will be reduced, and this means that the protection of unemployed men and women will be reduced; at the very least it will not provide any increased protection.
Those were my remarks. Thank you.