Mr. Speaker, on March 24, I asked the Minister of Human Resources Development the following question: "How can the Minister argue that his government's priority is job creation, when its only strategy is an attack on 85 per cent of the unemployed, and moreover in the poorest provinces?"
I could ask this question to the minister because I had just received the information that unemployment insurance cuts for 1994-95 and 1995-96 would amount to $735 million a year in Quebec and $630 million in each of these years in the Atlantic provinces. This adds up to $1.365 billion in cuts for Quebec and the Atlantic provinces together, where some 30 per cent of the Canadian population lives.
Before the minister made these changes to unemployment insurance that will be submitted to Parliament, was he concerned about the economic impact of these cuts? I am talking about the economic impact because claimants will receive less, because they will not have access to unemployment insurance, because they will not have accumulated as many weeks of work, because benefits will be lower. This reduction means less money circulating in Quebec and in the Atlantic provinces, money that would pay rent and buy groceries and other necessities.
When governments have laws like the Unemployment Insurance Act to give money to workers who lose their jobs, this money is immediately put in the economy. It is not used to buy luxury goods and it is not used to accumulate wealth or to speculate either. It is money that goes into the local communities and all these communities, whether they are in my riding or in the Lower St. Lawrence or in small villages in the Atlantic provinces, will be directly affected because there will be less money in circulation.
Has the minister thought of the additional burden he is imposing on the provinces because social assistance will be greatly affected? Employment and Immigration published figures showing that increased welfare caseloads are expected. For example, it predicts 14,500 new applications from people who run out of UI benefits and 4,400 from people not entitled to UI.
In Quebec alone, the minister predicted-and we can consider these figures to be conservative as well-that 14,500 more households would be on welfare at a cost of $127 million for next year; I repeat, these figures are conservative. So I repeat my question: How can the minister claim that he is working on job creation when, before helping people, he cuts what they need to eat, to live and to hang on?