Mr. Speaker, the minister would have us believe that his changes to UI would provide over $2 billion in savings to the government. However, during our briefings on the bill, when we asked for projections, actuarial analyses and economic effects, nothing was available. Further to that, the bureaucrats who briefed us assured us that the information did exist and that it would be forwarded to our offices.
Here we now find ourselves debating the bill in the House and the information has never been made available. Let us hope that the economics of these changes have indeed been analysed. This scheme must rely on a sound actuarial basis and we must have concrete evidence that such is the fact.
It will not do to adopt any scheme or plan which is simply a device for transmitting money raised by taxation or borrowing. In essence, any such scheme would be a dole, pure and simple. Without any evidence to the contrary especially when the auditor general is so condemnatory of job creation schemes, the minister's transitional jobs program will simply waste $300 million.
I have expressed my concern about the actuarial soundness of these changes to UI, not only because the government refuses to provide us with its analyses but also because of a Liberal sentiment that was espoused by the Liberal government which introduced UI. Paul Martin Sr. on July 19, 1940 stated: "While it is laudable to try to make UI actuarially sound, we must not be unmindful of the fact that it is impossible really to make it actuarially sound". I certainly hope that no present member of the cabinet shares this scary sentiment. Let us hope that the finance minister disagrees with what his father, Paul Martin Sr. had to say in 1940.
These new employment insurance measures clearly indicate that the government evidently expects unemployment to be a permanent problem. We realize and this group has directed attention to this fact time and time again that thanks to its status quo policies, the order of low unemployment has passed away and we have reached a high state of progress where the Liberal machine is continually putting people out of work and keeping them there.
Let me finish my remarks by quoting Mackenzie King who managed to get UI passed in the House. Let me remind the Liberals what their Liberal ancestors thought about social policy and UI and just how far from that original intent we have gone.
In 1935 before he became Prime Minister, Mackenzie King said: "Looking at the question of social legislation, it is necessary to take a bird's eye view of the whole. One must realize that what the provinces could do depended more than anything else upon the government's policies with respect to trade and those other policies which had to do with the revival of industry and business. To restore prosperity was the great objective which the Liberal government has before it".
King did not say it then, but if he were here today and I dare say if he were sober, he would probably tell us that to revive business and to safeguard social programs we should balance the budget more quickly than we are and we should make plans to address our crushing debtload, a task this government fails to understand because it just seems to be way beyond it.
In conclusion, let me reiterate that the Liberals are attempting once again to ram this bill through the House, to hide just how inept the bill really is in addressing the real issue of unemployment and job creation. More important, the changes to EI from UI really will make UI more like welfare than a true insurance plan. This is where in principle the bill goes drastically wrong and where the Liberals simply fail to comprehend what UI should do for Canadians.
Having said that, I move:
That the motion be amended by deleting all the words after the words "drawing board".