Mr. Speaker, beyond polls, yesterday, women's groups clearly expressed their opposition to the federal government's social program reform. Calling the human resources development minister's proposals discriminatory and regressive, the National Action Committee on the Status of Women firmly rejected the provisions to cut women's UI benefits.
Under these provisions, women's access to UI would be determined by spousal income, although women would, of course, continue to pay premiums. These measures are a direct attack on the financial independence that women have worked so hard to achieve in the last 30 years.
By completely disregarding the issue of fairness raised by his reform, the Minister of Human Resources Development is simply implementing a series of blind cuts at the expense of women, among others, dictated by his fight against the federal government's deficit.