Madam Speaker, on September 29, 1998, the Minister of Human Resources Development said, in reply to my question, that the employment insurance program was funded by employers and workers.
We fully agree with that statement. In fact, the government should not forget that it no longer contributes to the fund.
To give an idea of the situation, on December 2, 1998, the whole $13 billion required to fund the employment insurance program for the 1998-99 fiscal year, which began on April 1, 1998 and will end in March 1999, had already been collected. This means that, as of December 2, the money put into the fund is used by the government for other purposes, such as paying off part of the debt.
It is workers earning $39,000 or less, and the unemployed, who made the greatest contribution to the fight against the deficit. Now, the Minister of Finance and the Minister of Human Resources Development want to use that money to generate surpluses and pay off the debt.
These ministers are forgetting that there are people who do not pay employment insurance premiums. They include all the ministers, members of parliament and self-employed workers, who are not employees. These people are not asked to do their part. Those who do the largest part to pay this huge debt down are middle and low income earners. And that is unacceptable to me.
Could someone on the government side explain how we ended up with contribution rates being reduced by 15 cents, from $2.70 to $2.55, which will result in bringing the 1998-99 surplus down by only $260 million?
By cutting rates by only 15 cents, the finance minister did nothing to improve his image as someone who is misappropriating money from the EI fund to use it for other purposes. Money continues to be diverted from its intended purpose.
On their pay stubs, employees see “employment insurance contributions”. Therefore they expect these amounts to be paid into their employment insurance plan and not to be used for any other purpose. That is why the concept of misappropriation of funds remains valid.
In light of the fact that the employment insurance program can be self-financing with premiums of $2 per $100 of insurable earnings, and that the current rate is $2.55 per $100, could the government not spare another 40 cents per $100, or approximately $3 billion, to correct the inequities in the system? Because of these inequities, the number of claimants and the amount and duration of benefits are dropping rapidly, with the result that the federal government is being accused of contributing to poverty through its failure to act.
As a first step in the fight against poverty, should it not restore its EI system to decent and acceptable levels so that, on the one hand, employees feel that they are paying into a system that provides sufficient benefits and that they are getting their money's worth? On the other hand, since only four out of ten unemployed workers draw benefits, could the federal government not be required to put this $3 billion towards improving the system so that the war on poverty can resume and wealth can be shared more equally?
Is it not time to leave behind the federal government's cash-cow concept of employment insurance and go back to a system that provides adequate benefits and leaves employers and employees feeling that they have got their money's worth?