Mr. Speaker, I have a question for my colleague from the Bloc Quebecois, whose riding is very close to New Brunswick.
Does he agree with me that, in the budget, there is absolutely nothing for the unemployed—the finance minister confirmed he had used the surplus accumulated on the backs of the unemployed to reduce the debt and hand out goodies—nothing for the fishing industry, which is in a critical situation, nothing at all for small and medium size businesses and zilch for rural development?
In regions where unemployment is sky high, like my riding, some people stopped receiving EI cheques two weeks ago. The work will not resume before June and they have nothing to live on till then. People in Albert County collected employment insurance benefits for 18 weeks.
That is all they got. They did not get 19 weeks or 22 weeks, just 18, because the Minister of Human Resources Development still considers them to be from the Moncton area, in spite of the fact that they are an hour away from Moncton by car.
At the same time, with this budget, a hockey player earning $1 million a year will save $8,000 in tax this year. By comparison, people who earn $10,000—and there are many in my region who earn as little as $10,000 a year—will save $51. And we are supposed to be kissing the finance minister's feet for that today?
Did I miss something in the budget or can my colleague corroborate what I just said?