Madam Speaker, I want to thank the hon. member for raising an issue that we have not heard enough about in the debate. We certainly did not hear any reference to it during the throne speech and we did not hear much reference to it in the subsequent follow up debate. The issue I am talking about is the national scandal that exists in our EI system. The hon. member pointed out some of its many, many flaws. I would like to comment on this briefly and then ask him how he feels about a recommendation I would like to make.
In my riding of Winnipeg Centre I have problems similar to what the hon. member pointed out. The changes to the EI system have taken $20 million a year out of my riding alone, out of one inner city riding in Winnipeg.
Can we imagine the impact when $20 million a year that used to be transferred from the federal government to my riding is no longer there? Let us look at the other side of the coin. Can we imagine trying to get a new business to come to a riding with a $20 million payroll? We would have to pave the streets with gold to try to get the business to come to our riding. The inverse is also true. We should be very alarmed when we lose a $20 million payroll just from changes to the program.
The hon. member pointed out the surplus that exists in the fund. There is a $600 million a month surplus. We are paying in $600 million a month more than we are getting out in benefits. This is a national scandal. I do not know why working people are not taking to the streets. They should be furious about the issue. They certainly are where I come from.
The Speech from the Throne talked about finally dealing with labour market training in terms of national sectoral initiatives. That is something we have been advocating for decades within the building trades and the labour movement. Finally we are getting reference to that.
The province of Quebec has a very good system for labour market training through a 1% training levy. In my industry that money is then managed through the CCQ, the Commission de la construction du Québec. It manages that money and the training in that sector.
My question and recommendation would be: Can we not use some of the enormous surplus in the EI fund for these sectoral councils and make the correct model the national model for the whole country in terms of labour market training?