Relying on assumptions similar to those used by the minister in his budget, the chief actuary estimates that the annual surplus in 1999 will reach $6.22 billion. And the shocker: by the end of 1999, the surplus accumulated by this government in the last few years will have reached $26 billion, all of it lifted right out of the pockets of unemployed workers, SMEs and the most disadvantaged members of society.
I cannot say what I think of this Liberal government, Mr. Speaker, because it would be unparliamentary, but I am utterly disgusted with its arrogance and unfairness.
This government says we made no suggestions. That it does not know what to do about EI. I have news for it.
Here is what it would have been nice to hear from the Minister of Finance. There is nothing tricky about it, except that, if these fair social principles were observed, the Minister of Finance would lose his cash cow. He would no longer be able to pay down the deficit and meddle in the affairs of the provinces.
I will list what the Bloc Quebecois would have liked to have seen in this budget.
First of all, improved eligibility: abolition of the discrimination toward certain categories of unemployed persons based on their so-called presence in the labour force, such as the number of hours required for eligibility; reduction from the present 700 hours to 300 hours for eligibility for special sick, maternity and parental benefits.
Second, increase in maximum number of benefit weeks from 45 to 50.
Third, abolition of the so-called intensity rule which imposes a gradual decrease from 55% to 50% of the benefit level for claimants making regular use of employment insurance.
Fourth, transparency of the EI account: employment insurance account distinct from government operations and employment insurance rate determined solely by the employment insurance commission.
Fifth, reimbursement of EI contributions to those whose total insurable earnings are under $5,000.
Sixth, elimination of the rules reducing the amount of benefits: abolishing the freeze on maximum insurable earnings; restoring the 52 week base period; calculating benefits on the number of weeks required to qualify during which earnings were highest; and allowing people to earn 25% of maximum benefits weekly.
These suggestions have been incorporated into six bills tabled in this very House. This, in my opinion, would create an employment insurance program which would be fair and equitable for the people of Quebec and for all Canadians.
I will now address another issue relating to employment insurance, fiddling with zones. This is the greatest invention yet of the federal government for depriving people of a program to which they are entitled and for creating an awful mess, like the one we have in my own riding of Lotbinière.
The Lotbinière county municipality is part of a zone where the unemployment rate is at 7.2%. As a result, a worker has to have worked a minimum of 630 hours to qualify for 17 weeks of benefits. In another region or zone right next to it, and still within the riding of Lotbinière, that same person would have to work only 490 hours to qualify for 23 weeks. The Lotbinière county municipality is at a considerable disadvantage because of this regional rate and is deprived of any possibility of access to active job creation measures such as the job creation fund and the short weeks program.
When the employment insurance plan was created, it was supposed to help everyone without restriction and regardless of region. This government found a way to fiddle with the zones and to make sure that, in Quebec, as in my riding, no one understands. A person comes to me saying he lives in a certain municipality and has the right to draw 23 weeks of benefits. In another, he would be entitled to only 17 weeks. Try to explain that.
This plan is impossible. In this regard, I announce my intention to launch a vast operation to mobilize all the socio-economic and community stakeholders in the RCM of Lotbinière, the community decision makers, to get the Minister of Human Resources Development to correct his department's officials.
I will be tabling here in the next few months a complete file for the Minister of Human Resources Development. I hope he does not consider it a political action, an action by the Bloc Quebecois. It will be an action by the entire population of the RCM of Lotbinière, which is part of the riding of Lotbinière, a follow-up operation, a necessary operation. It will be an operation intended to break this longstanding social inequity.
I would now like to speak about the agriculture section of this budget: a big improvement over last year. The Minister of Finance devoted a tiny paragraph to agriculture in his voluminous 276 page propaganda document. Last year, there was not a single line, so it is a vast improvement. He announced, once again, the disaster program the minister of agriculture announced hastily before Christmas.
This government has had two specialities of late: it announces programs during recesses and organizes leaks of the deliberations of parliamentary committees to the media.
For example, last week the Minister of Agriculture announced his program when all the members of the Standing Committee on Agriculture and Agri-Food were in Washington to take part in information sessions organized with American officials and politicians to prepare future WTO negotiations. What a nice show of transparency on the minister's part.
Let us hope that, in its dealings with the provinces, this government will be fair and equitable toward Quebec, particularly hog farmers, who were saved by the intervention of the Lucien Bouchard government. If the recent social union agreement is any indication, we should expect the worst.
Let us now turn our attention to the future WTO negotiations. Agriculture is the first item on the agenda. These negotiations are under the supervision of the Minister for International Trade, who is an Ontarian, with the help of the Minister of Agriculture, another Ontarian, and of the Minister of Industry, another Ontarian. It is these three ministers who will represent Quebec's interests.
Needless to say I am concerned. I am even distressed by the fact that these Ontarians will make decisions for us Quebeckers. The social union tells the tale: one billion for beautiful Ontario, where the vast majority of federal Liberal members come from.
It is time we talk about sovereignty. To the people of Lotbinière and of Quebec I say we have to mobilize. We must talk more and more about this blueprint for our society, this project for the future, this project that gives hope to our young people, that will ensure Quebeckers' full development, that will give us the international prominence that we deserve, and that will finally liberate all Quebeckers from the yoke of the federal government. That project is Quebec's sovereignty.