Mr. Speaker, the member across the way cites a number of positive highlights from the budget. One of the things he concentrated on and pointed out was the fact that reducing EI premiums and the payroll burden would stimulate jobs, put people back to work and have long term benefits.
Given the huge surplus that the EI program shows and the fact that less than 40% of unemployed workers now qualify for EI, I would suggest energy should have been directed toward increasing the eligibility or lowering the bar for eligibility so more unemployed workers qualify. This would put more money into the system and have more unemployed people actually spending and thereby stimulating the economy.
What empirical evidence could the member cite to illustrate that dropping the payroll burden by 20 cents per $100 from $2.90 per hundred to $2.70 would result in stimulating job growth or showing a lasting benefit, given the flip side of the coin? With a $750 million per month surplus, we should be allowing more unemployed people to collect benefits rather than be cut off due to the stringent eligibility rules.