Mr. Speaker, what the hon. member asks is very similar to what I always ask when I stand up in the House. I come from a region very similar to his in a lot of respects. It is not part of the Torontos of the world or the Montreals; it is in the outlying regions.
The hon. member might not have had an opportunity to read the bill in its entirety. There are two areas I want to ask him about.
There is the $100 million investment program to create jobs at the local level. There is also the $300 million job fund for high unemployment areas such as his and mine. I think that will be very valuable in helping us create jobs or put together programs and policies of a local nature.
If he looks at the bill very closely he will also note there are five tools over which the local areas will have control, including the one he represents.
Another aspect of the bill is very important to the hon. member because he signalled that UI is a problem but social assistance is probably a bigger problem. In the new bill 45 per cent of the social assistance population will be eligible for re-employment initiatives. It never existed before that people on social assistance could qualify for measures which would help them to return to the workforce.
Does the member not think these are major improvements for his region, which has high unemployment and a large population on social assistance, similar to my region?