Mr. Speaker, a report by the economist Pierre Fortin shows that employment insurance reform has created 730,000 welfare recipients in Canada.
Barely 40% of the unemployed in this country qualify for employment insurance. Many people are therefore forced onto welfare.
Will the Minister of Human Resources Development use the employment insurance fund surplus to come to the assistance of these thousands of people who are suffering and to make it easier for them to gain access to employment insurance? Will he finally admit that these are rotten reforms and that changes must be made immediately to employment insurance?