Mr. Speaker, I listened with interest to the hon. member but I found an air of doom and gloom in his scenario. I would suggest that the nature of work in many respects has changed. A lot of people work successfully at home and on flex time. A lot of people volunteer and do a lot of work.
We have to face the fact that some people who work at lower salaries and pay their taxes are getting a little tired of waste and of those who abuse the system. However we are not going to solve the problems by attacking only those who abuse the system, because the system patently does not work well enough in this age.
What is wrong with someone asking for some community service work from frequent users of the UI program, which is supposed to be an insurance program and not a welfare program? What in the world is wrong with requesting people who receive something to do a little something in return, or at least to take responsibility within their community to assist in cleaning it up, in it being better run or perhaps assist seniors and children?
Would my friend care to explain how if we did that it would somehow, as he suggested, impact upon better paying work, upon more higher paying jobs? I do not see it.