Mr. Speaker, as the Minister of Human Resources Development just said-for the third time-we have reduced employment insurance premiums, after a decade of increases by the previous government.
To give you an idea of the philosophy behind this, I would like to quote the response of Quebec finance minister Bernard Landry to the same question. He said: "Pursuant to the commission's regulations, but also in response to repeated requests from several socioeconomic partners, the government plans to lower payroll taxes. We will do this, however, with the expectation that real job creation will ensue".
That is precisely why we have targeted small and medium size businesses, since they are responsible for the vast majority of new jobs created in Canada.