Thank you very much for the invitation.
People often say that if you want to know where you are going, you have to remember where you've been. And so I would like to remind you of a commitment made by the House of Commons in 1989. It was a unanimous commitment made by all parties. They voted for the abolition of child poverty by the year 2000. The organization Campaign 2000, which tracks this situation, reports that in fact, child poverty has increased markedly since 1989. We are consequently forced to recognize that as a society and as a government, we have failed.
We also have to ask ourselves why we failed. Campaign 2000 identified two major issues. The organization pointed out that the Government of Canada stopped investing in social housing. That is one of the reasons why child poverty worsened. It also pointed out that there had been some deep cuts to employment insurance over the past 25 years.
I don't want to put salt in the wound, but one has only to think of 1990, when the Conservative government stopped contributing to the employment insurance fund. In 1993, the Conservative government managed to completely exclude from employment insurance anyone who voluntary left a job or was dismissed for cause. In 1996, the Liberal government doubled, if not tripled, the eligibility requirements for benefits. One has only to think of the Harper government EI reform in 2012. All of these measures impact families, children and workers.
The Mouvement action-chômage de Montréal, which has been in existence for 45 years, defends and represents people who have problems with employment insurance. These are people who are simply between two jobs. That is what being unemployed is: it is being between jobs. Currently, if there were 100 unemployed persons in this room, fewer than 40 of them would be entitled to benefits. We think that is a problem.
In the context of this pre-budget consultation, we propose that you change things to make the employment insurance program truly accessible. The program should do the work it was created to do. In the final analysis, there will be repercussions at the budgetary level.
When someone in Red Deer, Montreal or Gaspé loses his or her job, he loses an income. If we can give him employment insurance benefits, he will not use them to purchase luxury goods or put them in a tax shelter. He will spend the money in his community. This money will have a direct impact on his life and on the life of his community. We feel that making the program accessible is really very important.
There is another very important thing. I invite you to read the “Employment and Insurance Monitoring and Assessment Report”, a guide the department publishes each year, in which it assesses the effectiveness of the employment insurance program and the means by which the program manages to pay benefits to the men and women who are entitled to them. Each year, there is a decrease in that effectiveness. Currently, the program is not managing to pay the benefits within the prescribed time. The employment insurance program, that administrative machine, is supposed to pay benefits within 28 days. Unfortunately, that objective is attained in only about 7% of cases. This has repercussions on communities and on individuals. Year after year, the “Employment Insurance Monitoring and Assessment Report” informs us that there are fewer resources in the machine. Accessing the program has become more complex, and people receive their benefits later.
I hope you will also look at the Social Security Tribunal of Canada. When people apply for benefits and their claim is denied, they have the right to appeal the decision.
In my opinion, in 2012 and in the years previous to that, the Canadian program was one of the best justice systems in the country. You could obtain an appeal hearing in 30 days or less, and a decision was handed down two or three days later. It was a model of efficiency, it did not cost much, and people had access to justice.
I plead before the Social Security Tribunal of Canada. Currently, hearings take place within three, four, five or six months. I don't know about you, but personally, I could not live without a salary for four, five, six or seven months.
In light of this, we implore you to improve the functioning of the Social Security Tribunal of Canada. The current situation impacts people and communities, but it also has budgetary consequences. And yet, it would not cost much to improve it. In fact, the previous system did not cost any more and it was extremely effective.
I can answer your questions in more detail, if you need any clarifications.
Thank you very much.