Mr. Speaker, with its unemployment insurance reform and the new Employment Insurance Act, the federal government has reduced access to benefits for pregnant women and adopting parents. By changing the criteria and introducing a new formula, the government has restricted access to parental leave.
Quebec, however, will establish a broader and more generous parental insurance system. To do so, the Quebec government has to
recover, as provided under the Employment Insurance Act, the amounts budgeted for parental leave so they can be administered by the province. It filed an official request last fall.
When will the Chrétien government act on this urgent request from Quebec? We hope the government will not drag its feet as it did in the case of section 93 of the Constitution Act, 1867. We hope it will deal with this request on a priority basis.
An election is in the air. Voters will remember this in the next election.