Mr. Speaker, what my colleague is drawing attention to is the fact that, prior to this reform, the maximum amount on which a worker could be required to contribute was $42,500. For some incomprehensible reason, the Minister of Finance cut that back to $39,000.
We asked the reason when we were in committee, with an approximate French translation, and the answer we got was that people earning between $39,000 and $42,500 did not make much use of employment insurance. What an answer. So the people paying into the program should be only those most likely to use it?
That is not all. The reform has surprised a lot of people, particularly many workers in new sectors. There are sectors that involve contract workers. People get hired for a set period of time, and can earn a fairly high income during that time. In the past, there was a weekly maximum on which deductions could be taken. Now, for such cases, there is no weekly ceiling. This means that a young person who earns $5,000 in one week, for instance, would have to pay EI on the entire amount.
Curiously, an older person working in another sector and earning $5,000 would have his deductions stop once $39,000 had been reached.
This comes pretty close to being illegal. I would not say it is a program that favours the middle wage-earners, but it is one intended to fill up the employment insurance coffers.