Madam Speaker, as my colleague has just mentioned in quoting the letter, my predecessor, Doug Young, did the same thing to Inkerman, New Brunswick, before 1993. He told 700 people in a room there “If you elect me, I will fight on your behalf. I will fight on your behalf for employment insurance, because otherwise it will be disastrous for New Brunswick”. He sounded like the current Prime Minister.
You must understand that people at home do not want to be on employment insurance. They want to work. But what happens? With the cuts to EI, people stop receiving benefits in January and end up in the so-called black hole. They get $165 a week before taxes, which amounts to $135. No one on the other side of the House can live on so little.
My colleague on the other side of the House who is shouting should have been here earlier to hear my speech. He should be ashamed to be in this House.
Doug Young cut UI and he was shown the door. The Liberals then rewarded him with $6 million for the highway between Fredericton and Moncton. That is what the Liberals did. That is what they are bragging about.
The Prime Minister was not saying during the election “You need Doug Young in Ottawa” He said “I need Doug Young in Ottawa” To do what? To make cuts like those he made in transport, employment insurance and national defence. That is what we were left with.
At home the jobs are seasonal, whereas in the rest of the country there is much more manufacturing. However, if they decided to set up some plants in our region today, I challenge my colleague opposite from Prince Edward Island to tell us whether our people are lazy and do-nothings, as our colleague Doug Young has described them. Let him stand up and tell the people back home what the Liberals said about them.