Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to have this opportunity, as brief as it is, to ask the hon. minister a question and put a comment or two forward.
It seemed to me at least, unless I was getting the wrong impression, that he was bragging during his presentation about the 270,000 women who are now covered under EI for the first time with the changes brought forward by the government. He was bragging about the new eligibility criteria. He was quoting statistics.
I refer to a working mother in my riding I recently heard from. This lady works as a permanent part time employee with the school district as a bus driver. Recently she had to take a six week medical leave of her duties and applied for medical benefits through employment insurance. After waiting several weeks she finally received her cards to fill out. Shortly after a letter from HRDC arrived informing her she did not qualify for any benefits. She did not have enough hours. A claimant needs 700 hours in a 52 week period and her total number of hours was only 648.
Her concern is, and I agree, that she is paying for insurance that she is ineligible to collect. Legislation does not take into account consideration of this scenario and there are no exceptions to the rules.
This woman is not alone. I think these people see EI as simply another tax. When some individuals call EI premiums a payroll tax, that is exactly what it is. It is especially true when those individuals are ineligible to collect benefits. To take those premiums off their pay, as small as it is, is unethical when they are in a situation where they have this additional tax, and it is simply a tax because they cannot get any benefits. We already have the highest tax in the G-7.
I wonder if the hon. minister would care to comment and refer his comments to the situation with this working mother and the fact that while on medical leave she was unable to get any benefits despite the fact that she pays her premiums like all other working Canadians.