Mr. Speaker, as the new youth critic for the Bloc Quebecois, I am pleased to speak today on the important issue of young Quebeckers' access to the labour market.
The motion before us today will shed some light on the two injustices the federal government is committing with its overall program for young people. First of all, the Liberal government is unfair to young Canadians because its first goal is not to maximize the efficiency of its youth programs, but to maximize its visibility in the eyes of young people. The government is also unfair to Quebec and young Quebeckers, because of the unfair distribution of money among the provinces.
Also, the motion will demonstrate the lack of openness shown by the Liberal government, which will once again object to any public review of its programs in order to conceal their unfairness.
Before explaining my point of view any further, I will read the motion by the member for Madawaska—Restigouche we are debating today:
That, in the opinion of this House, the government should overhaul all its programs for young people, in order to evaluate their impact and performance, and in order to ensure that all funds for such programs maximize young people's chances of joining the labour force.
In theory, youth programs are aimed at creating jobs. Granted, but how many? Nobody knows. What everybody knows though is that these programs are a blatant intrusion into the provinces' jurisdiction. They create more duplication, which is bound to harm our young people.
This motion brings to mind one of the basic rules the auditor general quotes every year. In order to assess the effectiveness of government programs, we must know what their total budget and measurable goals are, and be able to measure progress in the field.
If these requirements are not met, taxpayers cannot know whether their money is wisely invested. This is a situation common to young people in Quebec and Canada as a whole.
In reality, if the Liberal government is refusing to assess the impact of these programs, it is not because it ignores basic accounting rules. It is because the first objective of the government's youth strategy has nothing to do with employment for young people.
According to the Minister of Human Resources Development himself, the ultimate objective of that program is to, and I quote “continue to work to keep our country strong and united”. He said that in the House of Commons last year on October 2, 1997, in a formal speech in response to the Speech from the Throne. It is now clear that the strong and united country he is trying to impose on Quebeckers will be brought about by attractive and highly visible programs.
The millennium scholarship fund is a very good example of a program that completely disregards the real needs of the young people of Quebec, of a program where visibility is the priority. First, it duplicates the Quebec loans and bursaries program. On average, Quebec students already have a smaller debt load than their counterparts in the rest of Canada: $11,000 compared to $25,000. In Quebec, tuition fees are about half what they are in the rest of Canada: $1,700 compared to 3,200$. Moreover, Quebec is the only province to award bursaries on the basis of financial need. The others only give loans.
But, as the prime minister said in this House, the visibility of the program is not negotiable, no matter what choices Quebeckers made collectively concerning their education system. This is a totally unacceptable situation, but there is worse.
Where is the money to finance such encroachments in areas of provincial jurisdiction coming from? The budget surplus was reached by robbing the provinces of transfer payments, for education in particular.
The Quebec government must now impose cuts of several hundred million dollars on its education system. This is one of the tangible results of federal budget cuts.
In other words, the federal government takes the money from one pocket and puts it in the other one, after stamping it with the Canadian flag. It has absolutely no concern for the provinces, which are responsible for consistently managing their education system as a whole, or for young people who gain nothing from being used by a government willing to do anything to promote its strong and united nature.
The money for these highly visible programs also comes from employment insurance reform. The fund surplus, which will reach $20 billion by the end of the year, was achieved mainly by excluding many young people from entitlement to benefits.
In fact, since these limitations have been imposed, thousands of young Quebeckers have had to go on welfare. The numbers speak from themselves: the recipient-unemployed ratio went down from 72% in 1990 to 26% in 1997.
Now, more young people than ever before pay premiums, while only one young person out of four is entitled to benefits if faced with unemployment. But do they receive this money back in the form of active measures, as the government claims? Let us compare the amounts.
The government wants to spend as it pleases the $20 billion surplus that will accumulate this year in the employment insurance fund whereas, for the same year, it plans on spending $391 million for all youth programs, which is less than 2% of the amount taken from workers and businesses who pay EI premiums.
In short, the federal government is hindering the academic training of our young people by contributing to the deterioration of the education system in Quebec. It makes our young people poorer by forcing them to go on welfare instead of making them eligible for EI benefits. And, to make itself look good and to promote a strong and united Canada, it fills university and city newspapers with ads praising its youth strategy.
As suggested in today's motion, it is high time the House of Commons as well as Canadians and Quebeckers examine the real objectives of the Liberal government's cynical youth strategy.
The figures are just as disturbing with regard to Quebec's fair share. Of the $391 million earmarked for federal youth programs, Quebec gets only $63 million. That is only 16% of the allocated funds, even though we represent 25% of the population.
Moreover, effectiveness is not the ultimate goal for these programs. The federal government has already recognized that the provinces are in a better position to meet this type of need.
That is what led the Liberals to give Quebec full responsibility for manpower training before the last federal election. If it was fine just before the election, why is the federal government now rejecting any opting out by the provinces, which could then keep on working in close co-operation with those affected by these programs?
First of all, a significant reduction in EI premiums would result in the creation of tens of thousands of jobs. As it stands now, small and medium size businesses are penalized by the regressive payroll taxes of the federal government. The end result is that the way we are financing the EI system not only kills jobs by increasing the cost of labour, but kills a great deal of them in the businesses that tend to create most jobs.
I used a few examples to show that a good youth strategy is not necessarily a strategy that will give the most visibility to the federal government. I support motion M-213 because it would help us make a clear distinction between these two fundamentally different goals.
Such a review would demonstrate once and for all that the federal government has lost touch with the young, because of its obsession with visibility.