Mr. Speaker, in our travels across Canada and looking at emergency shelters, talking to activists and people living in shelters or on the street, I talked to them about homelessness and housing. My colleague talked to unemployed workers who were suffering because of the EI cutbacks. We heard much the same thing. I talked to unemployed construction workers who were living in emergency shelters because their last unemployment insurance cheque had run out. They were now waiting to go on welfare because they had no housing.
Surprisingly, I also talked to employed construction workers who were living in emergency shelters in Toronto. They found the rents were too high for their low wages. Because they were involved in short term work, they knew they would not qualify for EI and would then face with a situation where they could not afford adequate housing because of the unaffordable rents.
The cutbacks to the EI program are directly contributing to the increase in poverty and homelessness in Canada. If anyone does not believe that they should visit a shelter and talk to people to find out what the reality is.