Madam Speaker, it is an honour to be able to speak in this House and it is a privilege that most of us appreciate. However, it is sad that we sometimes have to speak on a measure that would impose cuts on the most needy in our society.
A few months ago, we would never have thought that we would see the implementation of a budget whose main thrust is to hurt and injure the unemployed. Our hopes were high and we thought that the creative mind of the Minister of Finance would lead him to choose the best mix of solutions to control the deficit and put the government's finances back in order.
Our present finance minister is no better than the Liberal Minister of Finance we had when our Prime Minister was himself Minister of Finance and beat all the records for increased deficits during his term.
One would have thought that a few years of reflection in the opposition, a few new faces, some ideas mentioned in the so-called red book would have given the Liberals a broader and more humane vision of the problems our society is confronted with. But no, the recipes are the same old ones. We blamed the Conservative government for its erroneous forecasts, we said that its finance minister was disconnected from reality, that he did not understand a thing about the workings of the economy, that his measures were counterproductive and that they were wreaking havoc instead of helping put our house back in order.
We went from bad to worse. The last budget was produced by an amateur, who made forecasting errors estimated at several billion dollars. He is an amateur who, oblivious to the influence of a finance minister's statements on financial markets, toyed with the value of our dollar and the nerves of the financial leaders. He is an amateur whose only solution to reducing the deficit was to attack the most needy members of our society.
Some of my colleagues who took part in this debate have given some really pathetic examples. With the human misery we see nowadays, when 20, 22 per cent or more of the population are jobless in some areas, our Minister of Finance, a man of original mind who was promising us the moon, has found a magic solution. He will cut UI benefits and shift the unemployed on to the welfare rolls.
When I asked a question of the Minister of Finance and of the Prime Minister, I was flabbergasted to hear them both candidly tell us: Well, we will cut unemployment insurance and take that money to create jobs, and the unemployed worker, instead of receiving UI benefits, will be going to work. That sort of reasoning does not stand up. If they do believe in their own job creation strategy, we have an alternative formula for them. Why did they not create jobs first and cut unemployment insurance
afterwards? That is what the Minister of Finance should have done but did not do, and that is why we cannot accept these measures attacking the poorest members of our society.
In the exclusive club of the finance minister's friends, it is obvious that the easiest way to get back on the road to prosperity is to slash transfer payments to individuals in the budget. Keep shifting your problems onto the shoulders of the provinces. What a nice federation, really, what a nice confederation this is. Talk about responsible government. Keep unloading your problems onto the provinces, as if provincial deficits did not matter. Some people find this situation funny. But, Madam Speaker, is it not the height of irresponsibility to be laughing and making fun when the House is about to vote a bill that will cut benefits for the poorest in our society. You really have to be irresponsible to keep laughing when the government is about to dump the unemployed onto welfare rolls.
The minister quoted employment statistics. Do you know why unemployment is dropping? Because people are so discouraged they do not even want to say they are looking for a job. There is no hope in this country for the young, for seasonal workers, for people who can usually earn a living by working five or six months a year. There is no hope left for those people. They no longer say that they are looking for a job. The worst part is that the young are the most severely affected by this unfortunate reform by the Minister of Finance and the Liberal government. Those young people have no hope.
Somebody said that the best way to kill a man is to keep him from working. The Minister of Finance is sacrificing future generations because of his lack of originality, his inability to come up with new and dynamic solutions, his inability to attract social activists, entrepreneurs, unions, business people, merchants, people with ideas to develop. The Minister of Finance failed to create consultation forums from which the original ideas he was unable to have could have emerged. It was much too difficult, Madam Speaker.
The Minister of Finance traveled across Canada. He met all his friends, economists, experts, people from different backgrounds, but he was unable to create a dynamic of social consultation which would have helped us find new and original solutions. He wants examples? A simple one springs to mind: it is Corvée habitation , a Quebec housing program which lasted a few years. It was a marvellous program which associated unions, entrepreneurs, business people and citizens around one same cause, the pursuit of a noble aim, to put people to work and to stimulate the economy. It was the finest example of a group assuming its responsibilities for the unemployed and people who are suffering. But because he acted irresponsibly, the Minister of Finance did not get to know these original solutions. If he really believes what he says, why did he not create jobs first and reduce UI benefits after? No, Madam Speaker.
Time is a detail for a technocrat like the Minister of Finance. The period of time during which an unemployed 25 year-old man with two children exhausts his UI benefits and has to go on welfare before he finds another job three or four years later is a technical detail for a technocrat like the Minister of Finance. It is an inhuman approach.
We cannot agree with such a piece of legislation. It is immoral to propose such measures in the House. How do you expect us to be able to show our faces in our ridings? How do you expect our fellow citizens to believe in the work that is being done here, when these people opposite promised jobs, jobs and jobs throughout the election campaign? The first steps that were taken were not creating jobs, but creating more poor people. This government will have created the greatest number of poor people; it will win the championship not for creating jobs, but for creating poverty. That is what this government will have done. That is what this minister of Finance will have done, a minister without ideas, without imagination, incapable of consulting people, incapable of taking his role seriously, incapable of estimating his deficit and totally incapable of evaluating the disastrous effects of unemployment insurance cuts on the poor people of Canada.
Madam Speaker, let me say to you that this budget-you are telling me that I have one minute left-will have been a terrible budget in terms of cuts. Working people are facing cuts, people who earn money, even very little, such as old people, are being targeted. The provinces are being targeted because the deficit is being shifted onto their shoulders. Everyone in Canada, all those who deal with the Canadian economy have been wrongly targeted. Here is a man without any imagination, a reform that hurts and an insensitivity that will cost you dearly one day.