First of all, Quebec and Canadian society has long expressed a need for sickness benefits. When a comparison is done, it is not to our advantage. When we compare Canada to similar countries, we see that it is the worst in terms of the protection provided by its sickness benefits in the event of a serious illness. We face immeasurable tragedies every day. Canada must assume its responsibilities and rebalance EI sickness benefits. We have been hearing about this for a long time.
In the last election, the Liberal Party of Canada, which forms this government, committed to advancing and extending sickness benefits to 26 weeks. Our position, which is also the position of many in society, is that this should be the minimum and that benefits should be extended to 50 weeks for those who are seriously ill. People need it, and their testimonies show that.
For example, on the Facebook page of the Conseil national des chômeurs et chômeuses, we posted a message about sickness benefits two weeks ago. It has been shared 1,300 times to date, and there are nearly 130 comments. I will share a few of them with you.
One person said that she had 15 weeks of sickness benefits, was still waiting for surgery and had no income. Another person said that she had had 15 weeks of health insurance benefits during her radiation treatments and all of her exams in Montreal, that she was no longer employed, that she was undergoing chemotherapy treatments and that it did not make sense. Another said that she had been off work for 15 months, that she was lucky to have had wage loss insurance and that she had taken her savings for the remaining five months. Finally, one person said that his spouse had cancer, that he did not work last year and that he had only had 15 weeks of sickness benefits, and that a person cannot get very far with that.
People's testimonies are sometimes overwhelming. They tell us that the government needs to rebalance sickness benefits. The Parliamentary Budget Officer's study tells us that there would be a 6-cent increase with a premium rate that keeps going down. Indeed, the employment situation is good. More money is flowing into the employment insurance fund, and to offset this, the contribution rate is being lowered.
We could arrive at a balanced rate that would be reasonable for everyone. Take the case of an employee who earns the average Canadian industrial wage of $50,000 a year or $1,000 a week. The contributions would increase by 6¢ per $100 of salary. That is 60¢ a week. What do we do with 60¢? That is $31 a year, but $31 a year per citizen to provide better protection in the event of serious illness. It's time to take action to change things.