Mr. Speaker, I want to enter this debate and speak on part II.
It is important to talk about part II because there has been a significant amount of contradiction by the opposition. The Bloc has been claiming on a number of fronts in the last weeks as we have debated this bill both in the House and in committee that it is a do nothing bill, that it is intended to reduce costs, that it does not create employment or that it is not intended to help create jobs. On the reverse of that, which is the intriguing part of this, the Bloc then criticizes the bill for having active measures to help people get jobs and the clear job creating measures it contains.
We all know and have heard this on numerous occasions. The member for Mercier has asked when the Minister of Human Resources Development is going to help people get back to work. He has asked when certain things are going to be done as far as the active measures are concerned. Then opposition members stand during this debate and say there are no measures to help people get back to work.
With the contradictions and the compounding of the confusion the member for Mercier is putting out to the public, I thought I would take the last 10 minutes I have today to set the record straight.
The confusion the members have is hurting their credibility and God only knows in this place we certainly do not need members' credibility to be affected by making contradictions. As an example there is the claim by the member for Drummond who said on May 6 at page 2374 in Hansard : ``There is no concrete measure for job creation in this unemployment insurance reform''. Then there is the member for Châteauguay who said on May 6 that this was an anti-employment measure because it has the audacity to cut a payroll tax that we know affects job creation.
How then do opposition members describe the job creation partnerships that are provided in the bill? How do they describe the transitional jobs fund of $300 million that will go to work to create some 15,000 jobs which, once this bill finally passes the House, will be available in the higher unemployment regions? Some of those areas are Quebec, northern Ontario and Atlantic Canada.
I can safely say that many of us in this place are waiting for that transitional fund to kick in so we can help people find employment. How do opposition members explain the fact that this bill will result in some 75,000 to 100,000 new job opportunities once it is fully implemented?
Again those are contradictions members continue to dismiss as irrelevant in their debate. They say that no jobs are being created, that there is no help for anybody. At the same time they argue asking why we are entering into provincial jurisdiction and why there are these five employment measures. There are all kinds of these arguments which for some unknown reason we cannot square no matter how hard we try.
The simple fact is that employment insurance is about jobs. It focuses on helping people get back to work with the right kind of support, whether the help is financial through income benefits or through employment benefits which is part II of the bill.
Let me quote the contradiction that pops up with the BQ again. The member for Saint-Hyacinthe-Bagot instructs the government to ensure that people who find themselves in this unfortunate situation are able, in the short or medium term, to re-enter the job market with lasting results. He is absolutely right. That is exactly what the government is attempting to do with part II of this EI reform.
That is the point that members have been trying to make. Bloc members are contradicting themselves again. Active measures are a way to keep insurance costs down by keeping people employed and employment up. That is the whole intent of transferring another $800 million into active programs, to help people get retrained and get back into the workforce. At the same time, added to that is another $300 million, which is a transition fund to help those high unemployment areas adjust to a very large behavioural structural change of EI.
I want to mention something to members because we are having great difficulty with this issue. The Government of Canada has recognized that labour market training is the responsibility of provincial governments and linked to the responsibility for education. We have said this over and over again in the House but for some unknown reason it is not to the benefit of the Bloc to say its members have heard what we are saying.
In Bill C-12 it states very bluntly that these measures, which include wage subsidies, income supplements, support for self-employment, partnerships for job creation and skills loans and grants, are all in line with the government's commitment on training. Skills loans and grants will only be implemented with the consent of the provinces concerned. In fact, we have said over and over again that we will get the consent of the provinces to enter into areas that we know are within their jurisdiction. However, our number one objective in part II is to help people through these kinds of programs to get right back into the workforce. If it is a training component other than getting people back to the workforce very quickly the government has to get the consent of the provinces. I think the Bloc finally recognizes that that commitment is a solid commitment.
I want to stress that point because the BQ members have claimed that the government is still in the training field. The Prime Minister, the minister and Liberal members have said over and over that the federal government is getting out of labour market training. I want to continue to focus on that particular point.
Let me add to this murky mix the Bloc position on expanding eligibility for employment benefits. Let me quote again from the member for Châteauguay: "Not only does the federal government interfere in areas of exclusive provincial jurisdiction"-which we have said we are not willing to do-"such as manpower and social assistance, but it does so with money collected as UI premiums". Can anyone imagine this? That comment would have made good sense if it had come from a member of the Reform Party. However, members have to agree that the federal government, if it does not do anything to help people who have slipped from unemployment insurance to welfare, then what is the point?
A significant portion of this bill deals with helping people. It is estimated that 45 per cent of the people who are on welfare or social assistance can apply for the five major components under part II of employment insurance. The Bloc members, who are the great defenders of the poor so they tell us, are objecting to that. They say that should not be the case. The federal government should not try to help people who are on social assistance. It should get its nose out of it and not help those people get back into the workforce.
The Bloc members are the authors of their own contradictions. They demand that the government create jobs. They demand that we follow a do nothing course on employment insurance that would prevent us from achieving the first goal. They also demand that the government do less for people on social assistance, the most vulnerable in our labour market. I want to disappoint the Bloc.
We are going to meet the very important obligation that was made in the speech from the throne by the Prime Minister and the Minister of Human Resources Development. Part II of the bill contains clear job creating measures. Those measures will be consistent with the policy that has been part of this program since the very beginning. The measures are linked to our specific area of jurisdiction and bring in a new level of collaboration. They expand eligibility for benefits to a wider group of people. The result of part II will be that people will get back to work.
All the juggling of claims by the opposition cannot ignore those essential facts. The most enjoyable part for the hon. member for Malpeque and myself is that we have had the pleasure of dealing with the contradictions which Bloc members have brought to this place in the last number of days as we have debated the report stage motions. They criticize us for not doing anything, but they do not want to talk about part II and the importance of helping people get
back to work. Whenever we do that the only message they want to send to their constituents is that we are entering into provincial jurisdiction.
Again we lay the facts on the table for my friends in the Bloc who desperately need to understand that this will be a structural change for which Canadians will thank us.
A witness who appeared before the committee a number of weeks ago has a reputation for being an individual with vision. His name is Alice Nakamura. He said that our children will thank us for these behavioural changes and the restructuring of this program because they are the most far-reaching behavioural changes which the country has ever seen. The changes are being made because of the new marketplace in which we find ourselves. Quite frankly, I feel very comfortable standing in this place and saying that I agree with Alice. When we look at the changes in the years to come through the monitoring system we will be proven correct.