Mr. Speaker, during the restructuring of Canada employment centres by the Minister of Human Resources Development, several centres in less populated areas were closed so that centres in larger towns could stay open.
This is what happened in Lachute. At the time, the government promised the community that was affected by this closing and that was at a disadvantage because of a lack of public transit, that an acceptable level of activity would be maintained. The Saint-Jérôme CEC therefore gave the contract for checking and forwarding EI applications to the Argenteuil literacy centre. But this service was recently cut, supposedly because of the potential savings to the Saint-Jérôme CEC.
We are asking for this service to be restored as rapidly as possible, so that the people in the Lachute area can have access to the services provided by the Department of Human Resources Development like everyone else—