Mr. Speaker, since the member for St. Boniface criticized the official opposition, I have no choice but to reply to him. The hon. member comes from a very nice region where the francophonie thrived and is still alive.
However, people in his region cannot get a daily French newspaper, only a weekly one.
I discussed this issue with the hon. member for St. Boniface about a year ago, but the situation has not changed.
The member, who spoke eloquently about education during most of his speech comes from a province that, since about the beginning of the century, has been violating the rights of French speaking people to education in their own language. I find it hard to understand the member's sudden interest for education and youth.
If he is serious about giving his attention to this issue, he should read the Constitution carefully. He will probably be surprised to find out that education and training are two areas that come under provincial jurisdiction. This is not a statement made by bad separatists: it is, fortunately or unfortunately, depending on which side of the House one sits, spelled out in the Constitution. We are simply asking the government to comply with the Constitution.
We are told that we only criticize, that we do not fulfil our responsibility to propose positive changes. I remind the hon. member that about 75 per cent of all those who sent submissions to the human resources development committee opposed Bill C-12. As elected representatives we represent people and we say that this bill, as the hon. member for Chicoutimi said earlier, is unacceptable to them.
If Bill C-12 is so promising for young people, how-I too will conclude by asking the member a question-can we accept that, if it is passed, a new entrant will have to have worked three times more than under the current system, that is 910 hours? This requirement alone shows how absurd Bill C-12 is in the way it treats young people. If the member can, at some point, provide an answer I want him to explain how this requirement of 910 hours, which is three times the number currently required in the case of young people or women who apply for the first time. These were my answers to the member for St. Boniface, along with a question.
Before getting on with my speech as such, I want to congratulate two members whom I know very well-there were certainly others who were out there this past weekend-and one of them even got a sunburn during the demonstration. I am referring to the hon. member for Chicoutimi who, along with local interest groups, succeeded in getting over 1,000 people to protest against Bill C-12, and the hon. member for Témiscamingue, who also convinced many of his constituents to come protest and show their discontent regarding this bill. I believe that people in every riding and region have shown their dissatisfaction with this legislation.
However, the best way to avoid all these problems with Bill C-12 remains job creation. Government, however, does not create jobs. We have seen how ineffectual this government is in that field also.
In my riding, there are two groups that are creating jobs. Since we are talking about unemployment insurance, employment insurance and jobs, I want to point out the outstanding work done by these two groups. I will start with the Société de développement économique de la Rive-Nord, under the chairmanship of Raymond Gervais.
This economic development corporation, which brings together the communities of the regional county municipality of L'Assomption, is doing outstanding work. With the stakeholders and the businessmen and women in the community, this economic development corporation seeks to attract businesses to our area and has had more than its fair share of success at it. It has a pretty good record of job creation, I want to emphasize that.
There is also the Société de développement économique des Moulins inc., which forms the other part of my riding, that is the regional county municipality of Les Moulins, except for the city of Mascouche; its chairwoman, Lise Brouillette, is doing a tremendous work to attract and keep businesses and to help create and maintain jobs in the area. Hats off to the Société de développement économique de la Rive-Nord, as well as to the Société de développement économique des Moulins inc.
These two organizations work day in and day out to create jobs. When I last spoke on Bill C-12, Mr. Speaker, I mentioned to my Liberal colleagues the problem with the Terrebonne employment centre which does not make any sense.
Let me remind those who might have forgotten or not heard about it that the Terrebonne employment centre was affected by the infamous employment centres restructuring, as improvised as the infamous constitutional process, and was asked, summoned or ordered to move to a brand new building the federal government has rented for ten years in order to meet the required standards.
Even before the official opening of the new employment centre, not a few weeks after but before the opening, the director of the centre received a nice letter asking him to inform his staff that in a few months time, within a year or two, the number of employees would have to be reduced from around a hundred down to 10 or 15.
This is truly the way to destroy the climate in a workplace. This is truly the way to inspire the people hired to help young people, women and everybody to find a job. Instead of trying to encourage the people who try to help others find a job, we crush them by sending them a letter in which they are told, even before the official
opening of their brand new centre, that it will be closed and they will have to move. We do not know when, we do not know where, but do not worry.
The homeowners, the children in school and the people in that community cannot accept what is going on, and I, as their member, cannot accept it either. That is why however often we speak of unemployment insurance-and I can say it in this House-we will never accept this decision on the Terrebonne employment centre.
Now, as for the bill itself, as I said a little while ago to my colleague from St. Boniface who prides himself on having implemented, contrary to what he used to say when he was in opposition, a system that is truly against the people, how can he accept and tell the people that 75 per cent of the briefs that were presented to the human resources committee havbe been ignored? Some 75 per cent of the briefs that were tabled expressed serious reservations,or simply called for the withdrawal of Bill C-12.
Even researchers hired by the department to assess the reform expressed serious reservations, and one of them is Marc Van Audenrode. He said: "If we can easily imagine what the impact of a specific amendment on one aspect of a system would be, it is almost impossible to imagine what the consequences of an as deep a reform as the one proposed would be. I could, like many other economists, give a very precise evaluation of what, I think, the consequences of reduced benefit periods or replacement rates would be, but I cannot give even a hint of what the consequences of the proposed reform would be and, frankly, I do not think any economist can". My colleague from St. Boniface has probably just got his degree in economics, because he gave us all the figures demonstrating that it was a good thing to cut young people and women off and to ask them to work three times longer to be eligible for unemployment insurance benefits.
I want to quote some briefs that were tabled. "The two-tier system created by this legislation goes against the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms because it discriminates against women and young people. The government is blaming those who have to live with decisions dictated by financial considerations". That was from the Syndicat de la fonction publique du Québec. Another brief that was submitted says this: "The potential advantages of a system based on the number of hours worked are nullified by the increased number of hours labour force entrants or re-entrants, or other people, must accumulate to become eligible for benefits. A disproportionate number of women and young people belong to the labour force entrant or re-entrant category". That was from the Fédération des femmes du Québec.
Some will say that all these comments are from Quebec. Here is one from the Canadian Union of Public Employees. "Benefits will be reduced through a number of proposals. This reduction is economically and morally unjustified. The proposals will have severe repercussions on women who earn less than men in general and who will receive benefits that will be much lower than those paid to men". Again, that was from the Canadian Union of Public Employees.
I will read you one more comment-I have several others-that comes from the Newfoundland and Labrador Federation of Labour. "The use of family income to determine eligibility (to the family supplement) is discriminatory against women. We are opposed to the dilution of unemployment insurance through a form of income support similar to welfare; if this measure is adopted, it should not have the effect of making women even less independent". Those were some of the comments-and there are many more-indicating that the majority of people, not only in Quebec, who have anything to do with this bill are strongly opposed to it. That is the most astonishing thing.
As for manpower training, it should not even be an issue. In Quebec, everybody agrees that manpower training should be the responsibility of the province. It is a unanimous opinion. Even Ghislain Dufault, who could be cited as an example, agrees that the federal government should withdraw, that it would be much simpler.
In conclusion, the minister talked about abusers. We also have statistics on abusers. We were told that this bill would eliminate abuse or reduce the number of abusers. The percentage of benefits received by abusers among unemployment insurance recipients is 0.0068 per cent. If, for less than 1 per cent, the government is willing to make everybody pay, we will certainly not support such a measure.