Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colleague from Acadie—Bathurst for his question. He mentions a problem that is indeed omnipresent.
I said that the Liberal government has been bragging about eliminating the deficit and getting it quickly to zero, but not only did it do it at the expense of the unemployed, it did it by slashing the transfers to the provinces. In fact, transfers to the province of Quebec has been reduced by $1.4 billion. That includes transfers for health, social assistance services and post-secondary education.
Right now, when workers are unable to qualify for unemployment insurance, they end up on welfare and it is up to the provinces to take care of them.
Not only has the government cut the transfers, not only is it making the unemployed pay, but it is also pushing people toward social welfare and saddling the provinces with the problem.
With a $16 billion surplus over two years, the solution to the problem we are currently facing is quite simple. We are not asking for a revolutionary solution. We only want to improve the system, to ensure that workers in regions like the Gaspé area my colleague represents can more easily become eligible. These regions need this insurance program and it is important that we do it this way.
The other solution would be to reduce the unemployment insurance premiums, as we have always heard it mentioned. A decrease of 10 cents would create up to 30,000 jobs.
These are the two solutions: improve the system for those who need it, who need a social security system, and reduce the unemployment insurance premiums to create jobs and get people back to work.