Mr. Speaker, I would like to point out to the hon. member that in the last several months, for example, by the previous changes to the Unemployment Insurance Act the government has provided additional benefits for close to 300,000 Canadians drawing unemployment insurance, of whom about 80 per cent were women. They gained an extra $1,000 per year income benefit. That was one of the direct results of our changes.
In the province of Quebec alone we have provided direct assistance to over 50,000 women for training and career development programs. We are introducing a special program for women to go on to graduate school in universities. We have established under the self-employment program special initiatives for women to set up their own businesses.
The hon. member for Rimouski-Témiscouata attended a meeting at the women's human resource centre in her riding, to help women find work.
We are very committed but we have to make changes in the programs so we can move from passive assistance to active support with new tools to help people get back to work.