Mr. Speaker, the government understands that some families who are unemployed or living on EI live in difficult situations. We have tried to be sensitive to their circumstances. That is why for example we introduced the family income supplement which tops up the EI benefits of about 220,000 low income claimants with children, two-thirds of whom are women.
I must ask the member opposite to recognize that the overall objective of the EI program is more than just giving the unemployed EI benefits for as long as possible. Instead, it means ensuring that people can have the skills and opportunity to work and can feed their own families. Merely giving people income support and keeping them on the economic sidelines year after year will not improve their lives or enable them to benefit from new opportunities in our economy.
We are trying to help those people get the skills needed to earn a full income because we believe this is the truly compassionate thing to do.
While EI is an essential part of our social safety net, it is not the only solution. Our net is strong and fair because different programs exist to meet different needs.
EI is supported by a number of other programs to help unemployed Canadians get a job. For example, there is the $7 billion the government puts in for low income families through the Canadian child tax benefit. For youth we invest $155 million every year to help young Canadians get on the job experience. For people with disabilities we invest, along with the provinces, $430 million to help them find and keep a job. For those trying to adjust to the new working conditions of the new economy we have set aside $2.1 billion for active measures.
This is how we are showing compassion, by ensuring a comprehensive set of measures exists to meet different needs. The fact that unemployment is at its lowest level in over eight years tells us that our approach is working and we hope the trend will continue.