Mr. Speaker, I welcome this opportunity to address the proposed amendments to the clause on unemployment insurance in Bill C-17. I would like to start by making it clear to Quebecers and Canadians that from the very beginning of the sub-committee's consideration of Bill C-17, during which I was the critic for the official opposition, the government tried to sneak through one of the major, if not the major reform of our social programs.
The proposals in the last budget, the first and last budget brought down by the Minister of Finance, provide for slashing $5.5 billion from the unemployment insurance fund during the next three years. More than 50 per cent of these cuts will be felt by two particular regions, mainly the Maritimes, an area that is
not known for its booming economy, and especially in recent years with the crisis in the fisheries, and another region that has been hit very hard, my country, Quebec, which will also absorb a major share of the cuts the federal government proposes to make in the unemployment insurance fund through the Liberal budget.
Next year alone, although the Maritimes represent 8.5 per cent of the population, they will be hit by 26 per cent of the cuts totalling $21.4 billion which the federal government will make in the unemployment insurance fund. The government is going to take $630 million out of the pockets of the unemployed in the Maritimes.
As for Quebec, next year, the impact of these cuts will represent $535 million or 31 per cent of the total for that year. Again, this government, and I see a few of its eminent representatives, will make these cuts at the expense of the unemployed, of the neediest in our society.
That is how this government treats the unemployed. That is how this government says it will create jobs. That is how this government treats people who do not deserve to be treated this way, since they already have to cope with the unemployment and under-employment that is widespread in Quebec, in the Maritimes and more or less across Canada. Should we be surprised that this is happening?
When, not so long ago, I heard the Prime Minister refer to the unemployed as people who were always drinking beer and say they should stop drinking beer and go out and look for a job, I said to myself: Now that is statesman like. That is a man with vision. And that from someone who on so many occasions waved the red book, saying: We are concerned about jobs. Now that is a kind of cynicism we have never seen before in Quebec or Canada: cynicism at the expense of the unemployed.
And when we consider that the present Prime Minister once represented the riding of Beauséjour in the Maritimes, and that normally if he did his job-which I sometimes doubt when I see him in his prime ministerial role-he ought to be aware of the economic situation in the Maritimes and the impact of the cuts he himself proposed as the leader of the government. He should know that these cuts will have a tremendous impact on all the Maritime communities already crushed by the demise of one of its most important industries, the fishing industry, and by other difficulties of industrial revival and redeployment or diversification.
Without the Bloc Quebecois, without our hard work, the subcommittee responsible for studying Bill C-17, and in particular the part relating to unemployment insurance, would have sat only two and a half days. One day to hear department officials explain the content of the report and a day and a half to hear witnesses. By being very persistent, we finally managed to obtain an extension of about two weeks. But even that was not enough, because this is the biggest reform of unemployment insurance since its creation. What I heard during those two weeks was, for example, the feeling of helplessness of the people from the Gaspe.
I was talking this morning with my colleague, the Bloc member for Gaspé, and he was telling me that in his riding the unemployment rate was at least 27 per cent. The increase in the number of weeks required to qualify for UI, from 10 to 12 weeks, will have an enormous impact on some people. My colleague was telling me that last month, only 42 per cent of the unemployed had been able to secure at least 10 weeks of work and were therefore eligible under the new rules introduced by this government. At 12 weeks even fewer people would have qualified. In these single-industry areas, where seasonal work is the norm, there are very few places where you can work more than 10 weeks.
And I would tell you that, during the two and a half weeks of hearings of the sub-committee on Bill C-17, people from the Maritimes came to see us saying that the measures proposed in that bill would destabilize whole communities, would make most of the seasonal workers, fishermen already affected by the fisheries crisis, go from unemployment insurance to welfare and that welfare benefits would come out of the already scarce provincial funds, as we well know.
When I saw how offhand my Liberal colleagues were with the people of Newfoundland, New Brunswick and everywhere else in the maritimes, and particularly the people of the Acadian Peninsula, I could not help but find it revolting. These people presented arguments to us and to the government, saying that with these measures, the government was attacking them directly without offering any compensation like economic development measures, diversification of the economic base or programs to help them get back into the labour force. The government was attacking them and cutting their means of subsistence and it was saying: "Come what may, it is a case of make or break for these people".
I even saw, and I must admit I am still troubled and moved by that, members of this government who threw out people who had driven hundreds of kilometres because they could not afford to fly. They came from the Acadian Peninsula and from Newfoundland to shout and cry their hopelessness. And the members of the government did not even have the courage to listen to all they had to say; they just threw them out.
One evening, there was one Bloc member, no Liberal member, no Reform member, and yet people had come all the way from Atlantic Canada to once again voice their grave concerns.
I was outraged by such a show of cynicism during the committee hearings. We can see this characteristic trait of the Liberals displayed in their attitude in general, and in the measures they are implementing. I can tell you that my constituents in the riding of Saint-Hyacinthe-Bagot, and the constituents of all my colleagues and probably of quite a few Liberal members opposite, have had just about enough of their cynicism, and their sarcasm regarding such fundamental things as human misery and suffering, which are considerable east of Manitoba.
I am particularly interested in one specific amendment aimed at deleting clause 28. The purpose of the amendment is to eliminate the proposed table of required number of weeks of insurable employment, and to go back to the initial provisions. In areas which are heavily dependant on resource industries, people have no other choice than to hope for some better times, and now they see that to be eligible for UI, they need 12 weeks of insurable employment, instead of 10.
What I have heard in the past three weeks has convinced me more than ever that it is important to treat people with respect. For instance, we were given statistics for Labrador, showing that up to 65 per cent of the people there, whole communities in fact, were without work at one time or another during the year, and that, of course, they would be hit very hard by this bill.
All I ask is a bit of compassion for these people. Let Parliament adopt the proposed amendments to the Unemployment Insurance Act and let the government implement measures for the diversification or the strengthening of our industrial base, and to facilitate the re-entry of unemployed workers into the labour force. These people need hope.