Mr. Speaker, we can indeed talk about justice in general. It is incredibly wrong and unacceptable to be accumulating a $20 billion surplus in the employment insurance fund while the justice department is making all sorts of wasteful expenditures like the ones I mentioned earlier, to the tune of $194 million. The government will not use this surplus to help workers, the asbestos mine workers who are asking for a POWA assistance program, for instance, because we must realize that on average the 305 workers at the BC mine, which has closed down, are over 52 years old.
It is morally wrong for the government to accumulate billions of dollars in a surplus transferred into the consolidated revenue fund while refusing to provide the assistance they need to workers who have worked hard all their lives, working day and night in mines to put bread and butter on the table for their families.
It laughs in their face and says “We have a $20 billion surplus in our coffers. Never mind you, workers over the age of 52 on average. You will not get any help from us. You can die, we don't care”. That is what the government is saying. This shows that the government does not know the first thing about being fair.