Mr. Speaker, last week the human resources development minister responsible for the unemployment insurance fund said some pretty incredible things that greatly concerned me. I am concerned because I think the spoken words underline a complete misunderstanding of the needs of Canadians and a misunderstanding of his own ministerial responsibilities.
In the House of Commons the minister responded to a question I asked him by accusing union leaders of forcing ordinary people into the streets of New Brunswick with "all kinds of false and erroneous information to exploit them". In answer to another question he said that union leaders should "stop exploiting vulnerable people in our society". I wonder who is exploiting whom.
The people of New Brunswick have had a lot to say about the changes being forced upon them by this government, not the least of which have been the changes to the unemployment insurance fund. We all know that the fund itself is in a surplus position because the government has cut the benefits and restricted eligibility. Where some 70 per cent of the unemployed used to receive benefits, now only some 40 per cent are eligible. At a time of high unemployment, one would expect the insurance fund to be in a deficit but this government is forcing the surplus position and that can only be achieved by exploiting the people who need it the most.
Perhaps the minister has not noticed but the people of New Brunswick and the people of other parts of Canada have noticed and they do not like what they see. Perhaps the minister has not noticed or perhaps he does not care, but ordinary, real people do not go out on to the streets, take up placards and demonstrate against their government unless they are frustrated and angry.
Those are words that accurately describe the feelings of the people who are out on the streets of New Brunswick. They are frustrated and they are angry at the changes being forced upon them. They are also the ones who are driving the demonstrations. They are demanding that their leaders do something about the issue.
Perhaps the minister has not noticed but the democratically elected leaders and those who work for them have recognized this frustration, this anger and this need for social programming that the ordinary, real citizens of New Brunswick and elsewhere have expressed.
The minister has chosen to attack his opponents instead of their ideas possibly because he has no real response to those ideas. If cutting the program and building a surplus in the fund to eventually apply against the national debt is the government's goal, then it is doing fine. However, if it is working with people through the difficult times between jobs or working with the economy to create the jobs needed to put people back to work, then it has failed miserably and it must be held accountable.
When the minister is asked to be accountable, he responds by questioning the credentials of those who express their concerns. When the head of the Canadian Labour Congress asks to be heard and asks for a meeting, the minister says: "I would not speak to Bob White if he was standing in the middle of the Sahara Desert with a glass of cold water and I had been there riding a camel for two weeks and was dry as a bone". What kind of an insulting comment is that?
Certainly the minister has a responsibility to meet with and discuss the important issues of his department with the people who are democratically elected to represent the people most affected by the decisions of that department.
I remain concerned that the minister has failed to understand that the real people of New Brunswick and other parts of Canada who are unemployed but want to work are simply looking for work. In the absence of work, they want to know that the insurance program they support will be there to support them. When the large profitable corporations are shedding jobs and the federal government is not there to protect them, they are going to turn to their other representatives for help.
I ask the minister to reconsider his comments and tell us that he will work to design an employment insurance program that benefits, not penalizes, those whose only real goal is to find and maintain a decent job.