Mr. Speaker, I thank the opposition for giving us an opportunity to give more explanations regarding important issues, by presenting motions which always surprise us, as they surprise others, by their incisive and unexpected nature.
I thank the opposition for giving me the opportunity to speak about youth, the generation which is next in line and which literally represents the future of our country. The future is of concern to all of us but there is no question that it is of even greater concern to young people.
It was the case for us when we were young, but it probably is much more so for young people today. They feel more bound by the choices made by their elders and they have a greater interest in the decisions taken in the present legislative process. This is why there is great interest among young people for the debates we are holding and the positions we take.
I find it unfortunate that the opposition, with all due respect to my hon. colleagues, is taking advantage of young people's uncertainty about the future, which is quite understandable, to heighten that uncertainty, increase their nervousness and to arouse passions. They want to give to the most vulnerable groups in our society the impression that the major reforms proposed by the government are aimed at them.
If there is one group which will benefit from the major reforms launched by the Government, it is the young people. If one group should one day be grateful to us for having taken the necessary steps to control the deficit, it is the young generation. And if there is one group in our society for which employment insurance will be beneficial, it is, once again, the young people.
Young people will benefit like our own generation has from the major social security programs the generation before us established 30, 40 and 50 years ago. Many of those programs in their original form no longer meet today's needs and that is certainly the case when it comes to unemployment insurance.
More than 80 per cent of Canadians agree that the present system is flawed and must be redesigned.
One thing is sure, if we do nothing, we are guaranteed of leaving our children a house mortgaged to the hilt, as Jean Paré wrote last year in L'Actualité on the very subject of social program reform.
Employment insurance offers an affordable system that continue on into the future. We have already explained why, under the bill, the eligibility requirements are increased for those newly arrived on the labour market. It would appear that young people tend to leave school earlier if they have relatively easy access to UI benefits.
If young people do not have an adequate education they often embark on a cycle of dependence on unemployment insurance or even welfare. We want to encourage young people to work rather than to depend on UI. We want to encourage personal responsibility, training and development. With these goals in mind it is not in our interest to have a system that does not encourage young people to get a good education.
In many respects, the young will benefit from the new system. With eligibility calculated according to accumulated hours of work, the insurance plan will be extended to 500,000 workers who
are not currently covered: those working part time, those in two or more small jobs and those whose job profile changes frequently.
In the job market at the moment, many of our young people find themselves in one of these categories. Of the 1.3 million low income workers who will have their contributions returned, nearly half are young people under 25. For the young, the new rules mean, in the end, a program cut of 8 per cent compared with 11 per cent for workers as a whole.
Young people constitute a priority for the government, made clear in the speech from the throne and in the budget tabled by the Minister of Finance.
As the minister said, our young people are, along with technology and trade, one of the three areas in which the government is going to invest more, because these areas are of crucial importance for improving employment and increasing the number of jobs now and in the future.
These initiatives are designed to create a leverage effect in the private sector and in our communities. The government is thus going to increase from $60 million to $120 million its contribution towards summer job creation for students. Furthermore, in the speech from the throne, the government called upon business and upon political and community leaders to join the efforts of the federal government to find new ways of helping our young people to find jobs.
It is in the interests of all Canadians to see to it that young people have every possible opportunity to participate in and contribute to the national economy.
Our young people must regain their confidence in the future. To that end, we must create new opportunities, and create jobs for all the workers in Canada. It is not up to the government to create jobs, but it is among its immediate responsibilities to generate a favourable climate for job creation. The best way to do it is to, first, stop the government from getting deeper in debt and control the deficit, as I said before. The budget that the government just presented shows that there is reason to hope, on this front.
At present, interest rates are low, the inflation rate is barely at 2 per cent and the overall unemployment rate is under 10 per cent. These are certainly favourable conditions for economic recovery and job creation.
As the Prime Minister said, it is now up to the private sector to do its part. It is in this way that the country's economy will move ahead.
This is how we will regain control. This is how we will manage to put our house in order so that our young people can regain confidence in the future.