Mr. Speaker, I welcome the opportunity to respond to the hon. member. He and I share something in common. We are both concerned about the unemployment and retraining situation in Canada. That is the reason the hon. minister brought forward this paper for discussion. We welcome discussion and the exchange of ideas hopefully for the benefit of all people in Canada.
I am aware of ongoing retraining programs. I attended a retraining program in my riding of Victoria-Haliburton the other night. The Victoria County Training Council graduated 295 people and 75 per cent of 1,717 people it has retrained over the last four years are actively involved in the workplace. That is a record to be very proud of. That type of retraining program has set the example for others to follow.
The member says that maybe I do not understand unemployment insurance. My father was unemployed in the fifties so I am well aware of what it is like to have unemployment in one's family, to suffer because of it and not to have proper funding until another job is found.
Earlier today the member for Elk Island talked about some dream world wherein no one here knew about the programs. All the programs were brought in and he never had to partake of them. He had a great time getting along in some fairyland like Alice in Wonderland . I went through the fifties with an unemployed father. I know what it is like to have to go through programs when there is no work or nothing for the person who has trained all his or her life and is all of a sudden out on the street with nothing to do and a family to raise. I understand that part of being unemployed. That is why I am anxious to be involved in this program, add to the discussion and bring to the forefront the fact that people have to retrain.
I spoke to the graduates the other night and said: "You have come through a training program; don't stop training". We talked to the pages this afternoon about always spending time training and retraining. The days of walking into a place and being there until one retires with a pension are over. We must retrain. We must have a workforce that is effective in the nineties and beyond. Retraining, unemployment and financial assistance to people temporarily out of work are very important to me. I want to see the ideas of all members brought forward to make it a better program, an improved program for the people who most need it.
There are too many single parents suffering in poverty in Canada. They did not ask for that. They did not ask to be poor. They do not want to be poor. They do not want handouts. They want to be part of a productive society. That is what the government is committed to doing. It wants to make this a more productive society, a society that trains and retrains and looks after the job market that becomes available, a highly technical market in some cases.
However 2,400 jobs went out of my riding over the free trade agreement. Some of those people qualified within 15 or 20 weeks of not qualifying for certain programs of assistance. Some compassion has to be given to a person who does not qualify for POWA because there are not enough people working in the factory and people are laid off. That has to be looked at and refined so that it gives a benefit to everyone who needs it.
The member asked whether people cheated the system. I think it is a very small percentage. I know some parties work on that very small percentage for political gain, but I think most people are honest. Most people are on these programs because they need it, not because they want it. It is a program with refinements that can work to the benefit of Canadian taxpayers and retrain our workforce for the 1990s and into the year 2000.