Mr. Speaker, first let me point out to the hon. member that the unemployment insurance system is very clearly a federal national responsibility. It goes back to 1940 when all the provinces agreed it would be the responsibility of the federal government to give people a sense of security against unemployment, and like any good insurance policy, to make sure that we reduce the risk.
The best way of reducing the risk in unemployment insurance is to get people back to work. That is one reason that over the years we have very carefully invested in a variety of programs to enable people to develop their employment prospects.
We are saying in the modernization of it that we have to get better. We have to use the money more effectively. We have to get better value for the money. Therefore, we have to begin to look at how we can streamline and consolidate many of the 40 some programs into several programs and do those where we can work in close co-operation with the provinces. That is very clearly part of what we want to do. We want to develop a series of co-operative relationships with the provinces to help people get back to work.