Madam Speaker, I want to thank the hon. member for his question. He was one of the most active members of the human resources development committee which I had the honour to chair in the last parliamentary session.
I am quite surprised that the hon. member did not view some of the changes we made to the employment insurance program as improvements to the program. As the hon. member is fully aware, there have been great changes in the Canadian economy and with change also comes change to programs and institutions as they too must reflect the changing dynamics of our economy.
In reference to lowering the premiums, the hon. member knows we have lowered premiums each year. If we followed the Conservative government's legislative timetable, the premiums would literally be going through the roof at this point.
I draw the attention of the hon. member to the actuarial report that basically stated that this surplus is required in case of an economic downturn to offset any of the strain that that may place on the federal treasury.
I want to also make it very clear that the reason why we have this so-called surplus is that we have learned from the mistakes of the previous government. What the previous government did during the last recession was increase the premiums precisely at the time when firms and employees required a relief in premiums.
These issues need to be honestly put forward in this Chamber and outside as well, not to mention the reality that unemployment has indeed dropped in this country in large measure due to the effective partnership we have been able to create with the private sector. Also, there is the fact that we have the fundamentals for the recovery well in place.