Thank you, Chair.
This amendment we have put forward brings Mr. Godin's bill, Bill C-265, more in line, on the specific issue of regional rates of employment, with Bill C-269, the Bloc bill, which came about after a lot of discussion among opposition parties and some discussion with labour groups who feel we need to move forward on EI.
For a long time, the Bloc and the NDP have put forward bills on EI that haven't really gone anywhere. There's a recognition that we need to work together, and if there's going to be a change in government, it's going to be the Liberal Party that comes in and improves EI. And I believe we have to.
Throughout these hearings, the short hearings we've had, I've asked witnesses what their priorities are for EI, because there are so many. Every year we have a surplus. It wasn't always the case. There was a point in time, just over a decade ago, when we were spending $2 billion, I believe, more than was coming in. That's one of the reasons changes were made. Employment insurance has become a very important part of the social infrastructure of Canada. Some people don't like it. I suspect that there are many members on the government side who aren't keen on any changes to EI that would put money back into the families of workers who need it. But we have to prioritize what we're going to do.
There are a lot of ways we can improve EI. Some of the pilot projects have addressed this. We can look at the two-week waiting period and what they call the five-week black hole on the back side of employment insurance. We can reduce qualifying hours or increase benefits. What about Mark Eyking's bill, Bill C-278, which everybody who appeared before this committee said was entirely sensible and reflected the reality of health care at this point in time in Canadian history when people are living after having cancer interventions and after having strokes and heart attacks and need a longer period of time on EI? To me, that should be a priority for the employment insurance system. That's another cost of $600 million or $700 million. I can't remember exactly. I think it's a very valid cost.
How do we get to the part-time workers, largely women workers, who don't access EI as much as they should? What about self-employed people who don't have access to EI, and money for training under the program?
There are a lot of things we need to do with the employment insurance system. We believe it's time that some of the annual surplus be utilized to the benefit of workers.
We have a specific concern, though. As you can see, when you reduce to a flat rate of 360 hours, the cost is pretty significant. We propose, as a start, reducing by 70 hours across the board. But keep the regional rates. Mr. Godin and Mr. Lessard quite correctly have a concern about people in high unemployment areas. This is to protect those people. They are the people in the fish plant in Mr. Cuzner's riding or the people in the forestry industry who are out of work and simply don't have access to jobs without moving. And we don't want to force Canadians to move. Many of them will move to where the employment is better. But it's a real concern that if you get rid of the regional rates of unemployment, and cuts have to be made, it'll be those areas that are hurt disproportionately, and we need to be very concerned about that.
We've asked for priorities. We've identified ours. We want to make changes to EI that we think are reflective of the reality of the workplace today, including the fact that this country could be undergoing an economic recession, or certainly a slump in industries like forestry and manufacturing. We need to have that money.
Mr. Lessard mentioned that our leader didn't support Bill C-269. I think he was referring to the royal recommendation and appeal. That wouldn't have done anything, but I would remind him that every Liberal in the House of Commons voted for Bill C-269 at final reading. Every Liberal in the House of Commons voted to send Mr. Godin's bill to this committee so we could give it some prudent oversight.
We think it's time for employment insurance to reflect the fact that workers have not benefited. Employees have had a reduction in benefits over the last ten years, I think by almost half the premium rate. That's good. We want to be fair to both ends, but we haven't done very much for the workers who have been hurt and continue to be hurt as the economy of Canada continues to concern people more and more all the time.
So we support Mr. Godin's bill. But we think this is a prudent and sensible way to go about making changes in EI, keeping in mind that there are many other things we would want to do as a government to make EI more accessible and more reasonable and to enhance the productivity of Canadians, not to detract from it.
These recommendations, in our view, reflect that.