Mr. Speaker, I will be splitting my time with my hon. colleague from Mercier.
I have found this afternoon most interesting, one of the questions from my hon. colleague from Acadie—Bathurst in particular. He asked one of our colleagues on the other side “Exactly what could have bitten you to make you end up in such a situation?”
In a few minutes I will refer to the letter from the current Prime Minister, then Leader of the Opposition. I think that what bit the Liberals was the forgetfulness bug. In other words, they have forgotten their past. They have lost their past history.
Not only is this party, which often pats itself on the back for its liberal values of openness and solidarity, proposing a bill like this one, but its entire policy leads us to believe that it is exactly the opposite.
The one with the most serious case of amnesia of all is probably the former Leader of the Opposition, the current Prime Minister. I refer to a letter he sent in 1993. This afternoon I heard reference to it, but I think it would be very important to quote the entire letter and to comment on it, in order to have a look at the situation the Liberals are in today. They have completely forgotten their past, their values of solidarity, the position they took at that time with respect to the matter we are dealing with now.
My first quote from the letter by the current Prime Minister, then Leader of the Opposition, is the following:
Yet the Minister of Finance
<—the Conservative finance minister at the time—
says that not only will he reintroduce the same taxation, monetary and trade policies—-but he will reduce government expenditures at the expense of the unemployed.
It was the Leader of the Opposition at that time, now the Prime Minister, who sponsored the measure we have before us today, employment insurance reform, and who put people in the mess they are now in. The current Prime Minister is the one who said that back then.
What about now? The basic problem is not being addressed. Instead the unemployed are being hit hard. Their benefits are being reduced, and they are having trouble qualifying for employment insurance.
In passing I would like to get back to what my colleague who spoke before me said about the importance of balancing the budget, the importance of a zero deficit. How was it achieved? First by slashing transfers to the provinces to the tune last year of $1.4 billion in Quebec alone, and on the back of the unemployed. Exactly the opposite of what the former opposition leader used to say.
I will read some more of the letter:
These measures fill Liberals with consternation.
Where is their consternation today? I listened to every Liberal speech made this afternoon in support of the Prime Minister and his cabinet. What happened to their consternation? In those days they were filled with consternation at the thought the unemployed were going to be harmed, but today they are doing even worse than the previous government.
I will quote some more:
By reducing benefits and penalizing more those who willingly leave their jobs, the government obviously does not care about the victims of the economic crisis. Instead of dealing with the root of the problem, the government goes after the unemployed. These measures will have disturbing effects as they will prevent workers from reporting cases of harassment and unacceptable working conditions.
What is going to happen now? Will workers faced with unacceptable conditions dare say “We are going to have to quit our job?” Will women who are harassed be able to say “I am going to quit my job, I am going to try to find something else, but in the meantime I can rely on the social safety net”?
No, and the statistics are here to prove it; nobody will contest them. Only 41% of unemployed workers qualify for employment insurance, half of them are forgotten. When it comes to young people this rate drops to 26%. And yet all we have heard so far is that young people should stay in school.
On the other hand, the young guy or girl who gets a job to put himself or herself through school starts contributing to the employment insurance plan from the first cent earned, the first hour worked. These young people contribute to the plan but cannot benefit from it.
I find absolutely deplorable all the remarks I have heard there this afternoon. The letter from the current Prime Minister and former leader of the opposition reads further:
In my opinion, it is unacceptable for the people of Canada to continue in this disastrous direction and further penalize the victims of this recession.
Not only did this government go further than the previous one, but I think it has gone much further in terms of the unfair conditions imposed on the unemployed.
We are being criticized for this great disaster, for being disaster stricken. They say we only talk of disasters. Given the statistics I just gave you, in a region like the one represented by my colleague, where nearly 40% of the population is unemployed, it is a disaster.
This minister would better drop the function and technocratic approach and come in ridings to see what it is like in the field, because my colleagues and I know how it is, and it is disastrous.
Whether our colleagues opposite like it or not, facts are what matter to us. That is why I have looked at questions in terms of the concept of reality this afternoon. It is as if these people were completely out of touch with reality and just follow the minister's lead or that of their Prime Minister and not consider the motion before us.
Bloc Quebecois members are not the only ones who happen to think this is outright theft, and that the victims end up paying the price. The premiers of Alberta and Ontario have said that this is nothing short of theft, and you can hardly suggest these people are out of touch with reality. They support our motion. People from all walks of life are behind the Bloc Quebecois on this motion.
And what about the unanimous support of the Assemblée nationale? Are there not Liberal members of the Assemblée nationale who are part of the great Liberal family and who claim to share fundamental values of solidarity? It may be true in Quebec, but it is certainly not the case in this House.
The government acts alone; it does not give a hoot about the victims and imposes its decisions. And then it brags about having a zero deficit this year and in the coming years. It should be said that the government achieved this at the expense of the unemployed and of provincial transfers.
I would like to remind the Liberal Party of the compassionate values it has always stood for. It should govern itself accordingly today. If this plan is a safety net, and if wealth redistribution is important, let the government turn to the wealthy, to the banks and the big corporations, and not to those who are on employment insurance because their region has been devastated by the lack of jobs.
The government should come to its senses, have some compassion and uphold the values it has always advocated. I therefore ask the government to support the motion put forward by my colleague, which is before us today.