Thank you, Mr. Chair.
First of all, I would like to ask our analyst, Mr. Kerr, to give us a report in the next few days of what was said during previous committee meetings, when representatives of HRDC said that the people who pay into employment insurance—Mr. Lake was quite clear. He said that 83% of people who are eligible for EI receive benefits.
He just told us that the government is in the process of stealing another 13%, because he said that only 83% of those who are eligible actually receive benefits. It should be 100%. Things are going from bad to worse.
Some people at this table are worried about how much this is going to cost. Are you not more worried about the human cost of this, how much this has cost families, and how much this adds to the suicide rate in the regions, where people work mainly seasonal jobs? People work in fisheries, in forestry or pick blueberries, and berries cannot be picked in January. Nor can Christmas trees be cut down in July. People in Calgary seem to have a hard time understanding this. People seem to think that, since Calgary is doing well, the rest of the country is doing well.
We see what happened as a result of cuts to employment insurance. Last year, Russian workers came to work in fish processing plants in PEI. Then they flew back and spent their money in Russia. Canada lost all that revenue. Is it not the same where you are from?