Madam Speaker, regarding the budget, I would like to discuss two important issues today in the House, namely the proposed changes to the unemployment insurance system and the current state of employment in the country.
I spent the last two weeks in my lovely riding of Frontenac. Not only did I have the chance to bring myself up to speed on certain issues, I also travelled around my riding. My constituents were quite taken aback to see me and questioned my motives. "Is there an election on the horizon?", some asked me. "Is everything all right?", others wondered.
Constituents were surprised that a mere five months after the election, their MP would come and thank them for their support and discuss their problems. It was certainly a politically noteworthy event.
My colleagues opposite in the Liberal government would do well to adopt the same approach. A visit to their ridings without the pressure of an election would open their eyes very quickly to the real concerns of their constituents.
It certainly would have been useful if the Minister of Finance had taken this approach before tabling his budget and especially before introducing changes to the unemployment insurance system. His team of experts, so far removed from the day-to-day world of the unemployed, could have learned a lot.
Madam Speaker, as you know, the unemployed in this country have been left to fend for themselves. While a great deal of lobbying went on in the case of cigarettes and alcohol, no one is lobbying on behalf of the unemployment insurance or any other similar program.
Unemployment insurance reform. There, I have said it. Where do we stand on this issue?
We are struck the most by the lack of respect the Liberals opposite have for the unemployed. Several of the amendments to the Unemployment Insurance Act create inequities between individuals as well as between regions. I will give you three examples of such clauses and provide a brief analysis.
Consider, for example, clause 22. It provides for an increase in the rate of benefit with the introduction of a dual scale. However, according to the Minister of Finance, this increase will affect only 15 per cent of claimants, whereas the remaining 85 per cent will see their benefits reduced to 55 per cent. The Minister of Finance has shown his true colours and we now see where his social program priorities lie.
As for clause 26, it highlights the same kind of contradiction on the part of the government. It repeals section 48 of the Act and reduces the premium from the rate of $3.07 voted by the Liberals in December to $3. This point was made several times over the course of the afternoon, but I must emphasize it again. With this measure, the minister thinks he will be creating 40,000 job in 1995, because clause 26 will take effect only in January 1995. Why did this Liberal government, which is apparently so clever, increase the rate of premiums in 1994? Why not reduce it immediately? This would mean a loss of employment for 1994 due to poor planning or lack of goodwill on the part of the Finance Minister of a government which calls itself a champion of employment and yet jacks up UI premiums. I just cannot understand it! The Minister of Finance himself has recognized, as reported in Le Soleil on April 8, that the existing UI premiums constitute a form of taxation that is killing employment.
Coming back to clause 28 now, which provides for the reduction of the benefit period and hits Quebec and the Maritimes particularly hard. I can see several members opposite who represent ridings in the Maritime provinces. The fact of the matter is that any region with a rate of unemployment above 10 per cent will be affected by this measure which, combined with tighter eligibility requirements, is causing serious problems, particularly for young people, and will automatically shift the
load from UI to welfare. That is what we, in Quebec, call shifting responsibility to someone else. And, according to three economists from the Université du Québec à Montréal, it will cost the province the tidy sum of $280 million.
As far as I am concerned, the idea behind all this, the spirit of this reform is more harmful than the measures per se. There is a punitive tinge to it. The Minister of Finance is punishing the unemployed for not having jobs. In his mind, this is a choice they have made. So, their benefit period will be shortened, their cheques chopped, their qualifying period extended, and so on and so forth. It is unfair to ask as much from the unemployed as the Minister of Finance does. And this has prompted Pierre Fortin and his team at the Université du Québec à Montréal to say that, for the sake of equity, the government is actually forcing the unemployed to make an absolutely disproportionate contribution to fiscal consolidation.
This measure is forcing the unemployed in Quebec and Canada to contribute to the government's efforts to put public finances in order and to reduce the deficit. How do you want me to sell that in the region of Thetford when, just a short while ago, an influential minister, namely the hon. member for Hull-Aylmer, was reported to have used a government jet, at a cost of $135,000 or $140,000, to give a short speech on the so-called benefits of sound management? Sorry, but the unemployed in my riding do not buy that.
Furthermore, the UI reform is attacking indiscriminately cheats, profiteers and unemployed men and women acting in good faith. On these words, I will end my short speech on the budget tabled by the Minister of Finance. Of course it is understood that the Bloc Quebecois will not support it.