I am going to follow up on what my colleague was saying. There are several points in the bill that we find somewhat bizarre. Pierre Céré spoke a little about them earlier. The question of loans we can be made is somewhat odd. We are going to be lent money that has been stolen from us and on top of that we will be charged interest. We find that somewhat surprising, as we do the dirty hands theory that the government is trying to develop. When it introduced Bill C-50, it said it had dirtied its hands when it took the surplus. It wants to use this bill to wash its hands and take the position that the surplus now belongs to it. We do not agree with this.
We recognize one good thing about Bill C-50, which is that there will be a board that will receive premiums and will prevent the government from blithely dipping into the account. That is the only thing positive we see. The question of the 15¢ has already been settled. Mr. Céré was most eloquent on that point. We did not need Bill C-50 to implement what was already in the Act.
The fact that the board being established will not even have the power to make recommendations is what we find most shocking. It will not even be able to recommend anything to the government at all. We will be able to do it by demonstrating. In fact, we have done that. We are saying that there has been enough stealing from the account. The board that is to be created should at least have the power to recommend things to the government. The government is telling us, is telling premium payers, the employers and employees who pay the premiums, that it will reduce premiums to appease us. That's terrific, for employees. That will come to $30 a year. Thirty dollars a year, that's something you can live on, when you're on unemployment! When 10¢ is paid in premiums, the account has surpluses. If we give the 10¢ a week back to employees, they won't be able to buy anything with it at the end of the year!
The is smugly telling us that it is going to reduce the premium rate and give a bit back to the people who pay the premiums, the employers and employees. That makes no sense. That is not the reason for creating a board, I hope. We thought the board would at least have the power to make recommendations to the government and stop the stealing from the account. We start in the Supreme Court on the 13th. We and the FTQ and the aluminum union will be arguing that our money has been stolen.
The board that is being created is a step forward, because at least we are saying that premiums will be channelled and the government will be prevented from getting its hands on them. But we are concerned about this $2 billion. Once that amount is exceeded, what will they do with the money?