Madam Speaker, if I may, before making my comments, I would like to salute my wife Zaïda and a group of friends from Chile in the opposition gallery and I would also like to congratulate the hon. member for Lévis on his presentation. I want to say that I am totally against this social security reform proposed by the government.
I think that it shows a total lack of human values, of compassion and fairness to the most vulnerable in our society. The Canadian social security system is not the most generous in the world. Far from it! Many systems in Europe are more generous. Canada spends $18 billion less than the average OECD-or industrialized-country. That is why the union movement was unanimous in opposing and fighting the social security reforms advocated by the government.
I will also fight these reforms because they hurt the most vulnerable, the unemployed, the people on welfare. In my riding of Bourassa, in north-end Montreal, which is a working-class riding, many immigrants, many Haitians are suffering from the economic crisis and they are not at all happy with the reform proposed by this government.
For all these reasons, I will be among those who will fight tooth and nail against these reforms. I congratulate once again my colleague, the hon. member for Lévis.