Mr. Speaker, yesterday while appearing before the finance committee the finance minister announced that the deficit for 1995-96 is $4.1 billion below the government's target of $32.7 billion.
The reason given for this is that government spending and interest charges were lower than expected, but the figures the minister released for employment insurance show another reason the deficit is lower than expected.
While the government has cut benefits for unemployed workers by $1.3 billion in 1995-96, the government is collecting $9 billion more than it is paying out in benefits. Most of this surplus will go to reducing the deficit.
This is not the government's money. It rightfully belongs to the 13 million workers who contributed to it. At a time when the unemployed are having a difficult time trying to make ends meet with reduced benefits it is cruel and unfair to make the deficit numbers look better by gouging unemployed workers.