Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise today and I will not telling you anything new by saying that I sincerely believe the government has no choice but to withdraw Bill C-12, the so-called employment insurance bill that I would rather call destitution insurance bill.
It has no choice, if for no other reason than the one that people do not want this bill. So the government, simply to respect democracy and the people who elected it, must go back to the drawing board, as is suggested in the motion of the Leader of the Opposition, my colleague from Roberval.
People do not want this bill and this reform. I am not talking only about people who are directly affected, that is, the current beneficiaries. I am talking about people in general. I am talking about editorial writers, unionists and workers. Lise Bissonnette and Jean-Robert Sansfaçon of Le Devoir , the FTQ, the CSN, the CEQ, the CSD, the Bishop of Bathurst, the Canadian Labour Congress, mayors of Acadian villages, labour councils in Edmundston and the regions all agree that the government's proposals are simply unacceptable.
Provincial politicians have also condemned this reform. Why? Because it will increase the number of welfare recipients for whom the provinces are directly responsible. They are simply impoverishing the provinces by transferring these cases to them. This is called shovelling into the provinces' backyards.
There will be less money for the unemployed. For example, after Phase I of the reform, the Quebec government reported last May an additional 10,000 welfare claims for April alone. Again, it is precisely in April that the provision reducing the eligibility period came into effect. In Quebec, this means an additional 10,000 welfare claims.
This is no coincidence. Those people deprived of their UI benefits went straight to welfare. Why? Because they could not find jobs. In fact, a document from the Department of Human Resources Development foresaw exactly the direct impact of the new program, stating that total benefits would be cut by $735 million in Quebec and that it could cost provincial welfare programs between $65 million and $135 million. This is clearly stated in the document itself.
To fend off the sharp criticism that would surely be directed at the federal government, the document went right on to say that, to counterbalance these measures, other job creation initiatives were being implemented: the infrastructure program, the youth service corps, the young trainees program and strategic initiatives related to social security.
What does this mean? It means duplication and overlap. I must point out that the document also stated that these measures, along with the $800 million invested in strategic initiatives, would act as a countermeasure to the budget proposals. In short, they expected all hell to break loose, so to speak. They knew full well that it would not go down easy this time around, that the public was not going to swallow this new bitter remedy. Once again, the government ignored provincial jurisdictions, and particularly what the Quebec government and many other social stakeholders in Quebec are asking for, that is to say, that full financial control be restored to Quebec so that we can have a real job creation policy.
As window dressing, new programs were established in areas of exclusive provincial jurisdiction. How wasteful. What a waste of time and energy, energy wasted in particular on giving once again false hopes.
We know that half of the 808,000 welfare recipients in Quebec are in fact chronically unemployed. Instead of creating employment, the government is turning out welfare recipients. How encouraging for the future. That is why the public does not want anything to do with Bill C-12, and that is not an understatement. As evidence of that, you need only recall the many protests that have been covered by television and the newspapers since December.
When my colleague from Mercier said the reform was pure nonsense, I remember that government members told her that she did not understand the so-called reform. So, considering all the protests that have been held since December, or since the government revealed another aspect of its so-called reform, hundreds of thousands of people have taken to the streets. They demonstrated not only in Quebec, but also in New Brunswick, in Nova Scotia, and elsewhere. Are there any members in the House who have not been informed by their constituents of their objections to this awful system that I would call the employment insurance light?
In fact, the newspapers gave extensive coverage of the trials and tribulations of a Liberal parliamentary secretary from Acadia, who was bluntly reminded that he should look after his voters' interests. As the 400 protesters chanted in Montreal, on February 26: "That reform will not go through". This is what they were saying.
The Wednesdays of shame will continue until the government finally understands the message that people, in their wisdom, have been trying to convey for two years. The poor, the young, as well as women and the unemployed have given enough. They should not have to pay for the deficit. The Bloc Quebecois agrees with them. The time has come to set up a true job creation program, instead of trying to catch those who cheat, instead of, as Angéla Vautour put it, "making bad people out of good people", instead of saying that protestors are separatists disguised as unemployed workers. The time has come for people to understand what really motivates this government, other than the reduction of the deficit, of course.
Not too long ago, the President of the Treasury Board made a slip of the tongue that was reported by journalist Michel Vastel. The formula is very simple. Here is what the President of the Treasury Board had to say: "First, we will reduce federal transfers to the provinces by $7 billion. This will force the provinces to make cuts in their social programs. We will wait for Mr. Bouchard's government to make its cuts. Those cuts are going to hurt, and the provincial governments are the ones that will pay. Then we table a seemingly nice budget, the recent budget, which does not appear to impose new constraints on taxpayers. We come out looking like a good father sparing his poor children." That is what the President of the Treasury Board said.
"Finally, after the provinces have juggled with the new constraints we have imposed on them, after they have given the bad news to their citizens, our government will launch a massive publicity campaign to explain to taxpayers that we are the only government capable of protecting them, of defending them and of guaranteeing them a minimum of adequate services and benefits. QED."
They will wait for the Quebec government to table its budget in order to demonstrate that the federal government, like a good father, will provide small grants, bypassing the provinces, to community networks and to individuals, while Quebec is dealt a $7 billion cut through the Canadian social transfer and while the unemployment insurance program is also cut by $640 million. It was cut last year, and it will be cut a further $650 million.
This is impossible. They forgot one thing: the people will not be fooled. They forgot the people's wisdom. They forgot the wave of revolt that is sweeping the country.
I hope that the government will listen and will not be content with implementing minor reforms in this bill, but will withdraw it and recognize the validity of the motion put forward by our colleague, the hon. member for Roberval, who asked that this bill be withdrawn.