Mr. Speaker, the reform as proposed, without amendment, shows very clearly our intention to reduce benefits available to the higher income earners. Obviously, we had to re-align the entire system. This is how we managed to ensure that low income workers have an opportunity to increase their family income by $2,500.
We found ways to ensure that hundreds of thousands of people could have access to the program for the first time, because we are changing the system so it will be based on hours of work and not weeks.
I think time will show, at the end of the exercise, that the employment insurance program is much more accessible to people who, in the past, had no access to it. Obviously, this will cost those with higher incomes a little. This is why we see people in certain parts of the country where, generally, people earn very little indeed, people who work in seasonal industries, we see union leaders out and about in these areas, because they know that the real reform is being done absolutely fairly to ensure that those with lower incomes are protected and those with higher incomes pay the price.