moved for leave to introduce Bill C-272, an act to amend the Employment Insurance Act (waiting period).
Mr. Speaker, in the present context with a surplus in the employment insurance fund of some $21 billion, this outmoded rule must be eliminated. It requires that an individual in the first weeks of unemployment have no income.
I believe the government is capable, with the plan we have and especially if it were to be managed independently by employers and employees, to ensure that people have benefits from their first day of unemployment. This is the purpose of this bill.
(Motions deemed adopted, bill read the first time and printed)