Mr. Speaker, in his budget, the Minister of Finance forecasts a marked decrease in unemployment in Canada, yet at the same time he informs us that there will be an 11% increase in benefits.
Yesterday he tried to explain to us that the justification for this was higher salaries. That makes no sense. The rise in salaries will be only 2.5%.
Is the minister not using these figures as an excuse to artificially inflate premiums so as to reduce the surplus, without looking as if this is being done at the expense of the unemployed?