Mr. Speaker, I realize that my hon. colleague from the official opposition would have needed more time to deal fully with the subject at hand. Nevertheless, I appreciated his hint at the government's failure to keep its word with respect to defence industry conversion. As we know, in my riding of Lévis, MIL Davie's shipyard suffered greatly from the government reneging on its promises, with nearly 2,000 jobs lost last year.
My question will not be on this. Instead, I would like my colleague to give me his thoughts on the Minister of Finance making cuts last year to the Unemployment Insurance Program to reach the financial targets set in his budget, and using the $2.5 billion surplus generated by these cuts to reach his targets. I would like his to tell me: is it right for the Minister of Finance to hit on the disadvantaged to reach his financial targets?