Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to answer my colleague and also to inform all members of this House. A secret document published in the Toronto Star shows that with this reform, students will pay twice as much tuition.
When the minister asks these students to put their shoulder to the wheel, I think that is rather hard to do, since some students will leave university with a $50,000 debt.
I would also like to answer the question about women. With this new reform, women in Quebec and Canada, even if they have paid into UI all their lives, will not be entitled to benefits if their income is over a certain amount. I think it is unfortunate to pick on women in that way.
I must also say that the reform of social programs will cost $170 million just in Quebec and force 40,000 households onto welfare. We must look deeper into the reform of social programs.
Take a family in which the father loses his job for some reason or other or has an insecure job and winds up on welfare. Imagine what it costs the government. First, it often causes problems like depression, medical problems; he has to see psychologists and psychiatrists. We must analyze the whole situation. We must not have a reform just for the sake of having a reform. We must also analyze the whole situation.
I often say that we must do prevention. We know that there is $6.4 billion in unpaid taxes to collect, $6.4 billion for the government's finances. It is out there, but it must be collected. That is all. When we opposition members tell you about the $6.4 billion, we are not here just to make trouble. Not at all! We are here to find solutions with the government, not just to criticize.
As politicians, we must deal with this situation. Unions have noticed that today employers hire more and more people on three- or four-month contracts. That is what happens more and more. Some employment agencies do just that. They hire people and tell them: You are hired for four or five months. Consequently, you can expect these people to come back every year. This is a problem.
In my region, unemployment runs very high and there are many seasonal workers. The social program reform will be applied uniformly everywhere, whether a province is prosperous or not, and that creates an injustice. So, let us take a closer look at these issues, which affect the workers and the unemployed. Whether or not you are unionized, the problem will surface some day. I tell unions that, at some point, the problem will come up.
Problems will surface and some say we will perhaps need a better immigration policy. If a reform is necessary, we should go that far. I am not saying we should not let anybody in. What I am saying is we have to create jobs. Thanks to modern technology, a machine can do the work of 100 workers. But what happens to these people? They find themselves out of work. This is what happens. I have nothing against progress, but it is a matter of balancing the positive against the negative. And this is what my comments are all about.