Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member for Lévis for his question which deals with an interesting point. He is concerned about what is going to happen with training institutions and the independent studies.
The $800 million human resources investment fund that we have announced will target five areas. There will be agencies that will have to deliver this program. I also want to bring to the hon. member's attention, and I am sure it is good news he already knows about, the fact that it is not only $800 million. This will be added to a fund of $1.9 billion which means that we as the federal
government are investing approximately $2.7 billion on those five tools.
We are empowering individuals and local communities and provincial governments, if that may be the case. These programs will be delivered by organizations. Some of those organizations may be the organizations the hon. member correctly brought to the attention of the House.
We have to put this debate into its proper context. The federal government felt that the system which presently exists was not working, and the hon. member knows this because Canadians told us from coast to coast to coast. There were far too many jobs and skills mismatched, which thereby also increased unemployment.
What is positive about our program is that it is better targeted. It collapses 39 programs into five. They are five tools that we know actually work because over the past two years we have done experiments and pilot projects with these five programs.
If we look at the self-employment assistance, 34,000 people participated and 68,000 jobs were created. If we look at the wage top-ups and earning supplements, these have also increased the duration that people stay on the jobs plus their income, which is something we need to address as a federal government. We need to provide people with job opportunities and also good jobs that increase income levels.
Fundamentally I want to conclude my response by turning 360 degrees to the hon. member's question on my earlier comments. By that I mean, as we debate this in the House of Commons, Canadians are faced with the challenges of an ever changing economy. I spoke about the young people, the older workers, the multiple job holder and the part time employees who under the present unemployment insurance program are being marginalized and excluded. We will find that Canadians will respond well to this employment insurance bill. It brings people into the fold. It provides greater income security and opportunities. It recognizes that in an ever changing economy we need to do things better. We need to target things better.
From a fairness point of view there is the fact that low income Canadians with dependents will get a top up which will make them reach approximately 80 per cent of their average earnings. There is the fact that people who were excluded or were UI exhaustees in the past three years will have access to the programs. The only thing they have now is to go on social assistance.
People who were on parental benefits in the past five years will also receive the opportunity to access one of the five pools of the human resources investment fund. That may be a very important bridge to the workplace, to get them back to work.
Overall the reactions I have heard today have been balanced. The small business sector is applauding this move because it basically reduces its tax burden. Small businesses really believe they are benefiting because through the employment insurance active measures they are actually going to have better human resources available.
At the federal level we want to co-operate fully with our provincial counterparts to ensure we are doing this together, in partnership. In the final analysis, the employment insurance bill tabled last Friday is really about bringing positive change to people's lives and improving their quality of life.