Decentralization is not about breaking the law with all due respect to my hon. colleague on the other side of the House. The government has resisted the natural ebb and flow of this federation by operating completely oblivious to its surroundings.
We saw this in the recent referendum. The government grossly miscalculated by adhering to a status quo position. Only when it became obvious that its policy was a complete failure did it move to make insincere promises of change. Now where is this change? Where is this vision for a new federation, a new federalism? Where is the blueprint for a renewed Canada? Where is the leadership to bring forward such a plan, given this government's previous attempts at major change? I would suggest that we will be waiting a long time before we see substantive and meaningful change.
Let me give one example of how this government is failing to deliver on its promises to reform and decentralize social programs. Consider the current welfare issue in British Columbia. I wanted to come back to that in my text because it is extremely significant today. When the province made changes to its own program by stipulating a residency requirement for welfare qualification, the federal government stepped in, and it has indeed stepped in, in a punitive fashion today, and threatened the province. Yesterday the artificial deadline passed in B.C. and we now see the results of what has happened.
There is no question that the B.C. government should be permitted to administer its affairs without federal interference. The minister, rather than taking such punitive action against the province should back off and leave it free to run its own programs. It is absurd for the minister, who has radically reduced transfers to the provinces, to turn around and intervene in provincial jurisdictions.
The minister continues to refuse to meet with the provinces over the Canada health and social transfer. Now when the provinces try to move forward, he stands in their way. Go figure. It would seem this is the Liberal position on co-operative federalism. How terribly predictable. How truly unfortunate. How really "made in Ottawa" it is.
During our briefings on Bills C-111 and C-112 we were provided with a briefing package on the changes these bills provide. At every twist and turn and at every reference to labour market training it is very clear that the provinces must negotiate with the government. They must seek to enter into a formal agreement with the federal government on how employment insurance benefits will work and how they will be delivered. Instead of giving complete power and adequate resources to the provinces, these amendments give a de facto veto to the federal government over the management and control of manpower training programs.
Ironically, the Liberal government is holding on for dear life to programs it has proven it is absolutely incapable of managing properly.
Just two weeks ago the auditor general stated in his report that there are grounds for concern that a lack of training in key areas may be producing a braking effect on jobs for the unemployed when the economy is expanding. Clearly, Canada's auditor general believes that the Liberal government is failing in its attempt to create those long term sustainable jobs, jobs, jobs we keep hearing about from the other side of the House. In fact, one may conclude from his comments that the government is actually hindering job creation, not helping it.
The minister's changes amount to mere tinkering, not a sweeping and comprehensive reform. What we need are systemic reforms that address the needs of the chronically unemployed, which was what UI in 1940 was intended to do. It was to provide a bridge for short term unemployment, not the massive social safety net we now see.
I would like to share briefly with the House three options for change the minister did not address. Two of the options involve decentralizing power for training programs to the lowest level of government: directly to the individual. Our options for relinquishing control to individuals are motivated by the desire for individuals to care for themselves when they are capable of doing so. That is absolutely fundamental to the Reform ideology of individuals accepting responsibility to take care of themselves when they are able to do so. That is not too difficult to understand.
However, the government wants to maintain control over training because it is a traditional political activity to maintain visibility in the area of employment and job creation. After all, the election is only two years down the road, and we want to be visible out there. Boy, we went out there and created those jobs, jobs, jobs. Are we not good?
The first option to be considered is that employment insurance could be returned to a true insurance plan, as it was originally intended to be when it was created in the 1940s. This would mean doing away with regional inequities in the program and ensuring that only those who truly need benefits receive them.
The system has become an income supplement. Income supplement does not, in my definition, translate to insurance. We believe there is a need and place for income supplements, but they should not be in UI or EI or whatever it is called. UI was meant to provide workers with temporary assistance for brief periods of time when they were between jobs.
The second option would be for individuals to change how they contribute to unemployment insurance. They could contribute to registered employment savings trusts, or REST accounts. These accounts would be mandatory and would be used at the discretion of the individual. As many people never use UI, it is only a tax with no benefit. With a REST account, similar to RRSPs, if the funds are not used the money could be directed into their super-RRSP accounts. This idea is not without its problems; I acknowledge that. The period of transition would be difficult and youth and the intermittently employed may find the plan difficult to manage.
A third option for the government is to drastically slim down EI, return it to a true insurance plan, and at the same time have individuals contribute to REST accounts. These things would happen together. This plan would ensure that the chronically unemployed are cared for and that those people who are seldom unemployed would be able to administer their own employment insurance program. They would not be taxed.
These are three options we are developing. We hope that in the new year we will be able to finalize our research and bring our plan forward to Reform's general assembly in June, where the membership, the people, can debate and come to a final decision on this important policy plank.
Having proposed options for decentralizing training, and after having demonstrated yet again how badly the Liberal government has broken its promise to transfer labour market training, I move:
That all the words after "prevents" be deleted and replaced with the words "the governments of all the provinces of Canada from adopting a true labour market training policy of their own".