Mr. Speaker, I want to draw to the hon. member's attention the fact that the classes of unemployed he just referred to were never covered by the employment insurance system in Canada. The long term unemployed were not covered previously. The system never applied to individuals who have never worked.
The change is that our government established programs like the transitional jobs fund and the youth employment strategy precisely to help those not covered by the employment insurance system to enter the labour force and contribute to society, because that is what people want.