Mr. Speaker, the minister claims that it is us, the PQ's local branch plant, as he likes to call us, who looked at the situation and made false statements. He should be reminded that, last week, Donald Charette wrote an editorial in Le Soleil in which he said “the first of the two methods, that is the one rightly used by the media, shows that, over the past eight years, the percentage of unemployed who are entitled to a cheque has fallen from 83% to 42%”.
Mr. Charette adds that “the number of those who qualify has significantly decreased, while the fund has increased at the expense of contributors”. He goes on to say that “thousands of people are thus excluded from a program that should protect them and these people probably become prime candidates for social assistance”. Mr. Charette rightly concludes by saying that “if Minister Pettigrew does not have the authority to impose his views, a standing committee of the Senate and the House of Commons will have to look at the issue and restore some justice through redistribution”.
These comments were not made by separatists. They are found in editorials across Canada, from the maritimes to British Columbia. Everyone says that the minister is stealing the employment insurance surplus—