Mr. Speaker, thank you for recognizing me so quickly.
I am pleased to put a question to my distinguished colleague, the member for Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup—Témiscouata—Les Basques, since his riding is similar in every respect to that of Frontenac—Mégantic.
I would like to tell him about an encounter I had last week in my riding. Last week was a week set aside for members who wanted to touch base with people in their ridings. That is what I did during the seven days available to us to meet with our constituents.
In Lac-Mégantic, at the Sears store, I met a saleswoman who told me a rather sad tale about her daughter. Her daughter had left university and worked hard to find a job. Unfortunately, three weeks ago, she received notice that she was being let go.
Naturally, because she had to live, she left home. She had to pay for rent and for food. She had to make payments on her furniture and her television. She had to pay for cable, the telephone and so on. So she went to the employment insurance office. The good Government of Canada had played with the terms so it is no longer unemployment insurance, but employment insurance. As she was short some ten hours in order to be eligible, she will have to turn to social assistance.
When the government says that the rate of unemployment has dropped since it came to power on October 25, 1993, it is not telling the truth, it is playing with the figures. Accordingly, when a person is not actually receiving employment insurance or actively looking for a job but living off social assistance, they are not counted. The same head cannot be counted twice. You can only count one person once.
I would ask my distinguished colleague from Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup—Témiscouata—Les Basques, since I managed to remember the very complex name of his riding, to tell us whether I am mistaken or whether I am right and whether in his riding, which is identical to Frontenac—Mégantic, unfortunate situations like the one I described keep occurring.