Mr. Chair, according to the fiscal update, the EI account will now have two accumulative surpluses in 2015. The government had previously committed to setting the EI rate at a break-even rate as soon as the account is in balance. This clause effectively breaks that promise. Instead of allowing the EI rate to fall in 2016, this clause freezes the EI rate at an unnecessarily high level. As a result, Canadian workers and businesses will pay an additional $5.6 billion more in EI premiums than what is required to balance the account.
We had the Canadian Restaurant and Foodservices Association before the committee the other day. That organization is one of the organizations that agree we ought to reduce EI premiums as opposed to maintaining an artificially high surplus. My amendment would allow the EI rate to fall in 2016.
I think it's important to recognize that this is a very tenuous recovery, and it's one that, while there have been some jobs created, with the job situation for young Canadians for instance, there are around 225,000 fewer jobs for young Canadians than before the downturn. Therefore, we don't believe that in the current labour or jobs environment it's a time to maintain unnecessarily high EI premiums right now.