Mr. Speaker, I would like to echo the words of my colleague, the member for Rimouski-Témiscouata. During the whole process leading to this moment in the House, not only the official opposition, but also the people who wanted to be heard, did not have the opportunity to voice their concerns.
Rarely have the people concerned been prevented from truly speaking their minds on such an important issue as this one, which will affect the lives of millions of people in a very practical way, since it will deny them access to a minimum level of security if they lose their jobs, it will reduce their benefits and it will cut the period of eligibility for those benefits. Millions will be affected by this bill, which has not been discussed adequately and about which the official opposition and the people have not had the opportunity to voice their concerns.
The government seems utterly unconcerned about what will happen to men, women, young workers and older ones, workers living in seasonal work areas and pregnant women. The government could not care less about the fate of these people.
This unemployment insurance system is the pillar not only of economic stability in times of recession, but also of a minimum security for those who do not have total job security or who cannot rely on personal or family wealth. That affects a wide segment of the population, and if the government had not acted as it did, it could have designed a real system by widening the assistance and especially by widening the base for those who can contribute to make this system a real one.
This government did not want to have a real system. It has preferred to reduce benefits and to make them unavailable to many people.
We now know that time is running out for us, which is a shame. We now know that the party in power does not want us to expose the true nature of this bill. We will try, during what time we do have, to repay it back in kind, because this is totally unacceptable.
All the people at home who may listen to members opposite were told, regarding this reform, which proposed a new concept based on hours worked, that they would get a better system, but that is totally false. At first glance, it might seem interesting to take hours worked into account, but the truth is the government took advantage of this change, to a great extent, to multiply by three the eligibility criteria.
Someone who was not in the system, a young person or a woman who got out of the workplace to have a child or who never got into it, or whoever has not been in the system for more than two years, for whatever reason, could go back into the system by working twenty 15 hour weeks. There was a threshold. The government had said that twenty 15 hour weeks, or 300 hours, was a threshold.
From now on, how many hours will the government require for these same persons to become eligible? The bill stipulates 910 hours, or twenty-six 35 hour weeks in a year, instead of twenty 15 hour weeks each. Those are the facts. Some will have to wait two years to become eligible. Even if they are in need, there is no eligibility until they have reached the number of hours required.
In a way, those affected are really those who need the system most. A researcher said that young people in particular must have access to real unemployment insurance, because jobs are so scarce. According to researchers, one of the main differences between someone who is eligible for UI benefits and someone who is not, is that the former will stay on UI for one more month, and use it to look for a job, a better paid job.
Is that wrong, considering the cost of living and the fact that young people, especially those who are thinking about starting a family, cannot possibly do so on minimum wages and will have trouble doing so if they are the only breadwinner and earn $10 or $12 an hour?
Good jobs, like good bosses, are extremely hard to find. Nowadays, what we are seeing is that businesses that provide stable well paid jobs are more likely to be closing down rather than starting up. Companies that paid good salaries are closing and are replaced by small businesses which, in many cases, do not pay salaries that allow people to live decently. This is, and will be, extremely hard on a lot of people.
What about someone who is in the system? Since the last change was made, when the unemployment rate was at its highest, the person must work twelve 15 hour weeks. What will happen now? From now on, the same person will have to work twelve 35 hour weeks. This is for the regions where the unemployment rate is highest.
In regions where it is lower, such as Victoria and Vancouver, people will have to work twenty 35 hour weeks. When the human resources development committee went there, it found out that, yes, there are rich people, but there are also many for whom this affluence only makes the cost of living higher, including their rent. The result is that so-called ordinary people have a hard time. They may lose their job and it may take time before they find another one. Still, these people will have to work twenty 35 hour weeks.
Between these two extremes, there is a whole scale of variable conditions. For the Montreal region, the requirement will be fourteen 35 hour weeks, or 490 hours. The bill went from weeks to hours worked, but the government has used the opportunity to increase the basic requirements considerably.
The bill does not take into account the fact that, for many people, one hour of work does not necessarily equate with one hour of wages. Part time teachers who often earn very little money and work in difficult conditions need a true unemployment insurance system between periods of employment. For these people, one hour of work does not equate with one hour of wages.
The same is true for musicians, actors and many people in this "new economy", where an hourly wage is not the rule. This bill is unfortunately legislation right out of the past. It is a pretext to make the system more inaccessible to those who need it. It is a bill that the population will reject.
The next government to be elected will pledge to change it. Jean Chrétien, leader of the official opposition-