Mr. Speaker, I would suggest that the hon. leader of the opposition read the recommendations that were made by the House of Commons committee, which indicated that one of the serious problems in the past was that the government that preceded ours, of which he was a member, substantially cut unemployment insurance premiums. When a recession hit the country they had to suddenly and drastically raise those premiums, which only accelerated the recession. Therefore the House of Commons committee recommended that a reserve be established to ensure there could be a stable state of premiums established.
As the hon. member knows, right now we are still paying off the deficit that was incurred by the previous government in the UI fund. We want to make sure we establish enough of a reserve that we will not run into the same problems the government of which he was a member encountered when it had to deal with the unemployment insurance system.