Mr. Speaker, it is with great pleasure that I rise at noon today to speak to Bill C-12, a bill which, by the way, the official opposition is prevented from debating as fully as it would have wished because of the gag you have just allowed, when all we want is to defend the poorest members of Canadian society.
First of all, Bill C-12 sets out to change the name "unemployment insurance" to "employment insurance", as though it were a disgrace to draw UI benefits. So, from now on, it will be called employment insurance.
I had a discussion with a member of the Liberal government, who tried to win me over to his way of seeing things by explaining that employment insurance should operate on the same principle as car insurance, the idea being that if you have a car accident, fine, two accidents, not quite so fine, and, after three, your insurance rates go up because you are a high risk case. This same MP tried to convince me that seasonal workers depended on UI for a living.
Since those who grow Christmas trees, woodcutters, or fishermen, for example, must turn to UI year after year, they would be poor clients for the insurance company, which would either have to raise its rates or lower its benefits.
Imagine, for a moment, that you are ill, at a low ebb, you have cancer perhaps. And their idea of gratitude is to bump up your health insurance premiums, whether or not you can afford it. Or perhaps they would say: "You are ill, we will take less care of you". Yes, just like you are going to do with employment insurance. You will penalize the so-called frequent users. It is crazy.
Worse yet, the surplus in the fund this year will be over $5 billion. Those $5 billion will be taken mainly from the workers' pockets, in a variety of ways, but particularly by increasing the number of weeks worked.
Your reply will be that I have misunderstood, that what we are looking at is not insurable weeks any more, it is hours. But in your calculations-of course I mean the government's calculations-a week is 35 hours, but all hours are counted. So the logger slogging away in the woods could accumulate ten 84 hour weeks. With his 10 weeks at 84 hours a week, he would become eligible after 10 weeks, because that would total 840 hours, assuming he is not a first time user of UI. He would be eligible because the 840 would be divided by 35, which would give more than the 20 or 22 weeks required.
Now to take the example of Mrs. Blouin, of Saint-Nazaire Street in Thetford Mines. She works at Cooprix, a supermarket, and averages 15 to 24 hours a week. Because the unemployment rate in the Chaudière-Appalaches region is 8 per cent, this lady will have great difficulty in becoming eligible for unemployment insurance benefits.
According to Bill C-12, and using the example of the Chaudière-Appalaches region with its 8 per cent unemployment, this lady would have to work 18 weeks at 35 hours a week which, by my calculations, makes 630 hours. This lady works a very few hours, although she would love to have 35 hours a week. There just is not enough work.
I would also like to point out that, in the various regions, calculation of the unemployment rate is sometimes very roundabout, I would not go so far as to say the figures are fiddled with, but obtained in a roundabout way, yes. It is strange, however, that in the Chaudière-Appalaches region the rate of unemployment is only 8 per cent, down 2 per cent in the past three years, yet there has been a 4 per cent increase in welfare recipients.
So there we have the see saw effect, take people away from the UI side and put them onto the welfare side. To all intents and purposes, the federal government assumed an area of provincial jurisdiction in 1940, imposing itself on an area that was not within its purview, over the objections of Maurice Duplessis. Now, in order to make that area more cost-effective, it is pushing the most disadvantaged off onto an area of provincial jurisdiction, namely social assistance. You will share my opinion that the trick of changing unemployment insurance into employment insurance is both mean spirited and crooked.
It had been the wish of the Bloc to withdraw eligibility from those who leave jobs of their own free will. In the bill, those who quit would have serious difficulties in drawing employment insurance, unemployment insurance benefits. It is comical to see how the folks in the Liberal Party are changing their tune.
In 1990, when it was in the opposition, the Liberal Party had emphatically and fiercely objected to the conservative government's plan to penalize workers who voluntarily quit their jobs. You know as well as I do what is going on in some plants. Their was an article in La Presse two weeks ago saying that some plant managers literally exploit their employees. Many of them have to quit before they drop dead on the job or suffer a breakdown. Their notice of termination of employment indicates that they left of their own will. Some employers-fortunately not all of them but their will always be some-take advantage of their employees and will do it even more in the future.
The hon. member for Malpeque, fortunately for him, was not a member of the House of Commons in 1990. Had he been part of the Liberal clan at that time, I believe he would have acted the same way. When Liberals were in opposition, that rule was not acceptable to them. It had to be eliminated in order to prevent abuse. Now that they are in power, the Liberals once more take advantage of the neediest.
Another measure I find deplorable is that all gains over $39,000 are no longer insurable. In return, the maximum amount of benefits to which workers could be eligible will be reduced. Since my time is already up, I would like to urge this government and the finance minister to look at other avenues, other alternatives before reducing their deficit on the back of the most disadvantaged people.
I invite the finance minister, through you Mr. Speaker, to register all his boats in Canada and to pay a little more income tax. He can afford it. I also invite him, when he purchases new ships, to buy them in Canada rather than in Asia, for instance. That would create jobs here.