Mr. Speaker, first of all, I would suggest to the hon. member for Mercier that the announcement was not made twice; the Minister of Finance and I did it jointly, in front of the same cameras.
We did announce-and the Minister of Finance may want to comment on this later-a five cent reduction. For the third consecutive year, our government has reduced employment insurance premiums, which is absolutely remarkable since they had risen for years.
I would also submit to the hon. member for Mercier that another program, a program for small business, was announced yesterday. Some 900,000 eligible small businesses will not have to pay any employment insurance premiums on behalf of new employees in 1997. This means that any small business in Canada that hires a new employee will not pay employment insurance premiums in 1997 and only 75 per cent of the premiums in 1998 for that employee. That is what we are doing to promote employment. That is what we announced yesterday.