Madam Chair, I would like our analysts to find out how France and Germany are addressing this issue. What are their programs like, and how are other countries dealing with the matter? For example, in France, recipients of employment insurance benefits get 75% of their salary.
I put the question to elected representatives in France, when I visited the National Assembly in Paris. These were conservative members who probably felt that everybody would like to receive employment insurance benefits to avoid working. But the elected officials in France told me that French workers were very hard-working, that they wanted to work, that employees paid their own insurance, not the government. The system is based on the employer and employees. The officials added that when they invested in their community, it created jobs, since the money came from the community itself, that is, from small- and medium-sized businesses. It created jobs rather than eliminating them.
Do you agree with this?