Yes, indeed.
On February 19, in Plessisville, which is located in my riding, the Minister of Human Resources Development hastily met the local media. He did not meet the unemployed, but the media. The minister clearly remembered his experience of last year, when he tried to make fun of the BC mine workers, in Thetford Mines.
Let us talk about what the Liberals have done to help Quebec's health sector. They just approved the establishment of a medical police whose sole purpose will be to spy on our health system and to recommend to federal Liberals a more centralizing strategy, in order to bring Quebec's health sector under federal control.
As for employment insurance or, rather, poverty insurance, only 36% of those who contributed now qualify for benefits. Three out of every four young people have been excluded, while seasonal workers remain the most affected.
The result of this policy is that people are leaving some of Quebec's most scenic regions. Members should look at what is happening in the Gaspé and North Shore areas. The Bloc Quebecois has made numerous appeals in this House, urging the government to correct the flaws of the employment insurance reform. What did the Minister of Finance announce to the unemployed? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. The minister continues to pump money out of the employment insurance surpluses and he keeps asking more from his servant, the Minister of Human Resources Development.
The latter answered the call by setting up a harassment scheme designed to target Quebec's unemployed. This quest to get money from the jobless is taking place in the Quebec riding of Lotbinière, where the minister went and got $6 million. In Quebec, over a period of just eight months, the minister got $144 million, all this for the benefit of beautiful Ontario, and also to provide money for the federal government, so that it can interfere in areas of provincial jurisdiction. This is the reality.
Let us take a look at the social and economic impacts of that reform. A very good study done by the Canadian Labour Congress shows that, from 1993 to 1997, my riding suffered a shortfall of $12 million. This hurts regional development and it results in people leaving the regions.
The Minister of Human Resources Development has the nerve to keep telling us, in the House, that the employment insurance reform is fair and equitable for Quebeckers.
I have a suggestion. From now on, so as to better describe what he has been doing since he was first appointed, the minister should call himself not the Minister of Human Resources Development, but the minister of human misery development. Unemployment is a cash cow for the Liberal government, true or false?