Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member for Renfrew—Nipissing—Pembroke for his eloquent comments. I think they were most interesting.
I rise in the House today to take part in this extremely important debate on the employment insurance system. I am pleased the hon. member for Madawaska—Restigouche has brought the motion before the House. It gives the government the opportunity to help Canadians understand why it was necessary to reform the old unemployment insurance income support system.
The hon. member's motion specifically addresses the small weeks adjustment projects. These pilots have served as an added incentive for workers to take any employment, even for a few extra hours. That is the thrust behind the new EI program to ensure that every hour of work counts toward eligibility for benefits and to encourage people to work as much as possible.
I think that is very important. I do not have a problem with the small weeks adjustment projects per se. They are an important means of helping seasonal and cyclical workers, a means of making the system a little more fair. However, I do not think that small weeks adjustment projects should continue in their current form indefinitely.
As the hon. member knows, these projects are being carried out in 29 high unemployment regions. While I understand the need for these projects in these areas, I would ask the minister to consider the advisability of making them less regional and applying them more evenly across our great country.
Employment insurance is an important part of our social safety net. I emphasis the word employment because I think the change from unemployment to employment insurance was an important one.
This program was never intended to make being jobless easy but rather to tide the person over between jobs and to act as a buffer while the person is looking for work. The idea is to get unemployed workers to use EI as temporary income support while looking for a new job or upgrading their skills so they can return to the workforce as quickly as possible.
The new EI system has been restructured and redesigned to be more inclusive. For example, a number of those who are taking part in the small weeks project also receive the family income supplement, a supplement introduced by this government to address the needs of Canadians who may be living in poverty. A $50 floor on earnings also applies to low income earners so that these workers can earn more while still receiving EI benefits. Workers with an annual income of less than $2,000 also have their premium payments refunded and are eligible to participate in active employment measures.
The reform of the EI system has benefited many people. EI is now more accessible to women. Close to 700,000 women who work part time now have their EI payments refunded and because every paid hour of work counts the 14 hour job trap women used to find themselves in under UI has been lifted.
The small weeks adjustment project is just one example of how the Department of Human Resources Development is responding to the changing labour market.
Today very few people stay at the same job for more than 10 years. The average person changes careers, not just jobs, five times between the time they finish school and the time they retire.
People have to be flexible and willing to adapt to new work environments and working conditions. The good old 9 to 5 does not apply to every job. Some people work 40 hours a week while others work at two or three part time jobs or are employed casually on a day by day basis.
This is why small weeks adjustment projects can be so beneficial. I would like to ask the minister to consider the advisability of seeing the project standardized and nationalized.
As the member of parliament for Guelph—Wellington, a riding representing a high number of construction workers, I use the construction industry as an example. A construction worker may work 40 hours one week and 20 hours another week. Construction is not a 9 to 5, Monday to Friday industry. Workers work until the job is done be that on a Monday, Wednesday, Saturday or any other day of the week. When the worker gets laid off, somewhat of an inevitable occurrence in this profession, and if they choose to apply for EI their benefits are calculated on their last 20 weeks of work.
Let us take a mason who has worked 40 hours a week for 6 months on a construction week then during the last 20 weeks of the project the nature of the work changes and his hours are cut back to 30 years for 5 weeks and then 20 hours for the next 5 weeks. The amount of EI the mason is now eligible to collect will be considerably smaller due to those small weeks. That does not seem very fair to me.
The small weeks adjustment projects were implemented for situations like this one, the ones we have in Guelph—Wellington. However, we cannot access this project. In practice they have only been developed in certain regions of the country.
Employment insurance is part of Canada's social fabric and a reason why Canada is ranked number one by the United Nations in terms of our standard of living. It is the Canadian way to help others in need. Charity and community spirit are two identifying features of our national psyche.
When Quebec was devastated by flooding a few years ago Canadians from every region responded. Even though Quebeckers did not want to be a part of this country Canadians went there and responded because they are Canadians, Canadians who live in Quebec.
A year later when the Red River overflowed people in every province and territory reached out to the people of Manitoba. Just last year when the ice storm struck Ontario and Quebec citizens from my riding of Guelph—Wellington and communities like ours everywhere responded immediately to the call for help in Quebec again.
I see that Bloc members are laughing because other Canadians responded to their needs. I think that is a terrible thing. It is very sad that the Bloc Quebecois responds by laughing and mocking.
Given this track record of helping our fellow citizens, no matter where they live, it does not make sense to help unemployed workers in one region of the country more than in another region.
All hon. members agree we have a responsibility to do everything within our power to help Canadians and their families avoid poverty and its traumatic effects.
I believe the small weeks adjustment projects are an important addition to the employment insurance system. I would like to see them continue, but nationally as well as regionally. The government knew that some regions had higher unemployment rates and that EI reform would impact some communities more than others. However, labour market conditions are changing everywhere and small weeks is a problem encountered by EI applicants across the country. This is a problem that needs to be addressed.
It is my understanding that the government is now analysing the projects to determine what action may be required. The government is close to being able to make a decision on the future of the small weeks adjustment projects experiment. These projects are scheduled to be completed on November 15. It would be premature to commit to renewing them without first assessing their impact and the effectiveness in the regions in which they will be implemented, then taking a serious look at where else they could be of benefit to all Canadians.
As I mentioned, Canada is considered the best country in the world when it comes to our standard of living. Our social safety net is a big reason why. Canadians look out for one another in times of need. Whether the hardship is caused by a national disaster, illness or unemployment it is important to help our fellow Canadians wherever they are, wherever they live.
I understand that unemployment is higher in certain regions of the country, but we also have to look at the unemployment levels by industry to ensure we are helping as many Canadians as possible and helping them equally. That is what being Canadian is all about.