Mr. Speaker, let me assure the hon. member that the department tries to treat all clients with fairness, understanding and compassion. Each case is assessed individually and all circumstances brought to light are examined and considered in a compassionate manner.
The opposition member says that the people he met felt like they were being treated as criminals. Perhaps this is attributable to the fact that some people put in a claim for employment insurance four or five years ago when the rules were different and received benefits. It is possible they put in one recently with the new rules and found they did not qualify.
Sometimes when people are told no, they take it very personally. No one is trying to treat anyone like a criminal. However, the employees of the Department of Human Resources Development in the various Canada employment centres are obligated to implement the law as it stands. It is unfortunate if some people are feeling very sensitive and taking it personally.
The member also said that the rate of women who do not qualify has risen by 20%. He is reversing a figure that is in today's monitoring and assessment report. In fact it is not women who do not qualify. It is that the rate of women who have applied for employment insurance has dropped by 20%. That could mean that many more women have jobs.
There are 300,000 more women working in the past year than were working prior to that. That might account for the reason fewer are putting in claims.