Madam Speaker, the member for Malpeque may have tried to console me a little bit by reminding me that the Liberal majority had approved an amendment introduced by the members of the Bloc. As the author of this amendment, I only want to point out that this amendment was about adding the two words community agencies, omitted by the Liberal majority, as entitled to federal grants in order to create jobs. I only wanted to ensure that they would not forget this important aspect.
Despite this modest amendment, the only one they deigned to accept out of some fifteen that were moved, one fact remains. Since the member mentions it, I want to remind him that the Liberal majority introduced 42 amendments in Committee. Those amendments have been approved, of course, since they have a majority. Those 42 amendments were introduced in committee-I remember-by various Liberal members, sometimes by the parliamentary secretary. When questioned on the substance of these amendments, I must say that, most of the time, in 75 per cent of the cases, it was public servants who answered. Why? Because these amendments were obviously written by public servants. What type of amendments were they? Technical amendments to reinforce clauses of the bill, whether some members like it or not, aimed-forgive my language-at catching more people red-handed and at reinforcing penalties against those who abuse the unemployment insurance system, but this is not said.
They say that they have improved the bill. Granted, but they do not say that the objective was to eliminate such abuses. The three amendments improve the system, but the three amendments presented to the House could only be moved by the minister. Everybody in the House knows it, but it is something we have to say for the record because people outside the House do not know this. We, in the opposition, have been criticized for failing to propose any amendment. We were told that we were criticizing the bill but had no amendment to propose. There is a parliamentary rule that says very clearly that as soon as an amendment involves changes of a financial nature, it amendment must be moved by a minister of the crown.
This is why the opposition could not move such an amendment.
You will understand that, otherwise, we would have proposed quite a few amendments to eliminate the negative impact of the $2 billion in cuts which come on top of the $5 billion in cuts made as a result of the previous federal budget and Bill C-17. I wanted to make this comment.
Now, for my question. In her speech, to which the member for Malpeque listened, the member for Mercier reminded the House of a statement, to my knowledge the only statement, by the economic development minister of his own province, Prince Edward Island, who said how bad it was going to be for the economy of Prince Edward Island, which is a top performer in the area of job creation. I would say that in Prince Edward Island, apart for government services, jobs are only seasonal.
There is no farming in winter. He pointed that out. Fishing too is only in the summer. And as far as tourism is concerned, people who like PEI come mainly in the summer. Does the member agree with the statement made by the economic development minister of his own province, who said that this bill was bad? Also, does he agree with the government's figures according to which, from now on, Prince Edward Island, with a population of only 170,000, will lose $11 million every year?