Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I have to tell you that I honestly didn't intend to ask you any questions because you are not teaching us anything new.
The last answer you gave us, Ms. Carroll, is an insult to Canadians, and to this country's workers! We know that only 32% of women and 38% of men qualify for employment insurance and that the Liberal Party stole $49 billion from the employment insurance fund to balance its budget and to get rid of the deficit, and that the Conservatives have always made do by saying that the premium rate needed to be reduced. It's gone from $3 to $1.92. In the past, a person working 15 hours per week and 150 hours per year could qualify for employment insurance, whereas today, the same person has to work 910 hours before being entitled to employment insurance for the first time.
Ms. Carroll, I have to tell you that the statement you just made is completely false. Don't come and talk to us about immigrants and those two weeks. I'd like to hear what you have to say about what I've just said.
Just think about this. Previously, workers would be eligible for employment insurance by working 15 hours per week, that's 150 hours per year. A worker applying for employment insurance for the first time had to have worked 20 weeks over the year to be eligible, whereas today, it's 26 weeks or 840 hours; it went from 910 hours to 840 hours.
Can you believe how the statistics have changed! How can you make a comment like you just made? How can senior officials briefing the government have such an attitude? As you so clearly stated at the start of your presentation, this money went into the government's consolidated revenue fund. Every time you touch the employment insurance fund, you affect government revenue and that has an impact on the amount of money the government gets. The basic problem is this: it's the little guys that bear the brunt, it's the workers who are being hit upon and it's hurting them.
Ms. Carroll, you're not the one who is going to solve the problem; we need a government that really wants to reform employment insurance and believes that important insurance isn't a tax imposed on its citizens, but rather a payment for which companies are responsible. If they aren't able to have their employees working 12 months out of every year, then the companies should pay for insurance so that employees can support their families. That's what the unemployment insurance program was like when it was set up 50 years ago. The Auditor General made a big mistake in 1986 when he transferred the money into the government's consolidated revenue fund. He gave the government a cash cow for it to use as it saw fit. And now look at the program.