Mr. Speaker, I welcome the opportunity to participate in the debate on the employment insurance bill since it has dominated the best part of the last 18 months of my being here.
The system has worked in large measure. The social security review took place and a committee of Parliament went across Canada talking about our social programs and how they might be reorganized. I will be the first to acknowledge that not all the things that people asked were done, but as a member of the committee I can tell members that people were listened to and those interventions had an impact.
The minister put forward a bill after that exercise. While a good start on the reform, it had some flaws. Rather than stubbornly holding to the bill, significant amendments have not only been allowed or accepted but actually encouraged.
That is evidence the system can work and that these pieces of legislation can be significantly improved in the interest of Canadians, and in our case specifically seasonal workers in all parts of Canada, certainly in Atlantic Canada.
Three major amendments we have witnessed have to do with the so-called intensity rule, the gap and the divisor. I will speak specifically about the benefits of the bill so that those who are involved in debate will realize exactly what it is they would have us not do if they got their way and were able to through the bill out.
Specifically, because of the shift from weeks to hours as the measure of eligibility, essentially the government is saying that if a person works a 70 hour week, which many people in Atlantic Canada are very familiar with, with this change the employee is getting the value of two weeks under the existing law. In other words, someone who works 70 hours gets the value of one week. After this amendment, the value of 70 hours will be two weeks for all intents and purposes. That means that on average many people in my part of Canada will get into the UI system more easily than has been the case for many years. This is probably the first time in six or seven years that the system has been more accessible rather than less accessible.
Because the value is on hours rather than on weeks, at the end of the claim there is an additional period of eligibility because eligibility is based on how much one works. If the number of weeks worked is limited, regardless if it was 15 hours a week or 75 hours a week, under the present rules it is one week. With the new system every hour will be counted. On average for Atlantic Canada it will mean about two additional weeks of eligibility at the end of a claim. That is very important.
Ultimately the effect is that we are allowing more people in the current labour pool, the people who are in and out of the program regularly, more access to a nationally based income redistribution program.
There are those in the third party who are very negative, to be polite, about the social policy aspects of the unemployment insurance program. It is important to accept and understand the extent of this very real and important element of EI, that there are communities, industries and families in the country that, while they can work for a period of time each year, cannot work all year and cannot make enough money during their working period to sustain the family year round. This is a very efficient way of dealing with the problem.
I would accept that the first two budgets of the government had the effect of making unemployment insurance, soon to be employment insurance, harder to get. However, the amendment will go in the opposite direction and make the program more accessible. It is something very important to the people working in seasonal industries, particularly in Atlantic Canada but also across the country. That in itself is sufficient reason to applaud the government for the amendment.
There is also the low income supplement. Families with incomes of less than $26,000 will see their benefits increased as much as 13 per cent. That is again in keeping with the social policy objectives in the employment insurance program. That is good news particularly for those who simply cannot make enough money in part of a year to sustain a family. This should be applauded by all concerned for those families that receive less than $26,000.
All those people who were held at 14 hours per week because their employer did not want to pay benefits will now have first hour coverage. I will be the first to admit it will be more difficult for first time entrants to get into the system. However, if they worked anything up to 14 hours in the past they had absolutely no access whatsoever.
Because of the change in the way the employment benefits or non-income based aspects of the program are being reorganized many people will have access to employment benefits, the human resources investment fund benefits, who have been on unemployment insurance in the last three years, or five years if it was for maternity or sickness benefits.
That means all of those people we have heard about who were in programs because they were eligible for unemployment insurance benefits will now be entitled to benefits after their income benefits are exhausted. That is a major improvement. We all know of cases where people were in programs and as soon as their income benefits were exhausted they were out of the program.
This is a very contentious part of the bill. I would like to speak to its objective, that new entrants will have a harder time than in the past. That has often been brought to our attention. We will have to
deal with it. We will have to improve it. We will have to recognize where the weaknesses and the faults are.
Generally speaking, it is important for Canadians to talk about what it means when kids leave school to go into industries where ultimately they will be sustained only by a social program such as UI. I do not want that for my kids. I do not want to hold out for my children the possibility of going into an industry which in all likelihood will be short lived.
They will be sustained only because of the existence of the unemployment insurance program. I recognize our obligation to the people who are there now. However, it is a difficult question for me whether we want to attract more people to those programs. I acknowledge our responsibility to replace the job opportunities with other opportunities for young Canadians, but I am not sure I can abide by an objective which would see people drawn into a system which would provide unemployment insurance as a means of livelihood well into the future.
I strongly believe the system has to be improved and changed. When the bill was presented many of us were very concerned about its weaknesses. After doing our homework we were able to affect the outcome of law. I feel good about that. I thank the minister and my colleagues who joined with me in the process.