Mr. Speaker, what a difference a day or a week or a year or four years makes.
I remember not that long ago a government that sat in this House with a $6 billion deficit account in EI. That deficit account was of tremendous concern to every Canadian. Who was making the payments for that deficit account? It was clearly the Government of Canada. Just a few short years before that there was a surplus of $2 billion. What caused the change from a $2 billion surplus to a $6 billion debt? Obviously it is a cycle that does occur from time to time. It is a cycle of good employment, steady growth and then a downturn.
There is absolutely no question that the responsibility of government is to smooth out those tremendous downturns and peaks into some realistic form to make sure workers have fair and equitable treatment whether it is in a difficult time when many are laid off or when we are doing well.
We have established several programs to smooth out the cycle of work and the business practice changes in this country in order to make sure that is done. EI is one of those programs.
When I look back to 1993 and the economy at that time I did not hear Conservative members suggesting reductions in premiums. As a matter of fact, the premiums were at $3.07 and they were suggesting an increase at that time. They were suggesting that the premiums should rise to $3.25 or more.