An hon. member from the Reform Party is saying that the government has not paid down the deficit. Perhaps as a member of the House of Commons finance committee he should consider that there is a difference between deficit and debt. I think the member means the government has not paid down the debt. The member does not understand the difference between deficit and debt, but that is all right. I guess one does not have to understand economics to be in the House of Commons or on the finance committee.
The employment insurance issue is fundamental for a number of reasons. First, labour market flexibility is extraordinarily important in the new economy. I commend the hon. member for this piece of legislation. It has the potential by creating a new independent commission to set rates separate from politics and separate from the finance minister and the government in power. Labour and management in small business can set rates which best reflect the realities of the market in a particular area of the country at a particular time. That is very important.
Labour market flexibility depends largely on employment insurance programs and training. One of the failures of the government in terms of the slashing of EI benefits has been its complete abdication of responsibility for training. There has been an offloading to the provinces in the area of training.
It is fundamentally wrong that in order to qualify for training someone actually has to be on employment insurance and in order to get employment insurance has to be laid off. Many small and medium size companies across the country would like to have their employees participate in training but currently they do not benefit from it. The training components are failing on a national level and the cuts to EI have been a significant part of that.
The commission should have the ability to determine both the premiums rates and the nature of programs. I feel an autonomous commission could better determine how premiums could be spent through the programs.
One of the shifts I would like to see in EI is from almost pure income support to a focus on training. We could develop a mandate that recognizes the importance not just of income support but also of training such that people are able to access the levers of the new economy and of an economy that will be changing at an ever-increasing pace in the future.
The issue of seasonal work is another issue the government has largely ignored. It has punished Canadians who are involved in seasonal work. Many sectors in Atlantic Canada, including agriculture, the fisheries and small business, have over a period of years developed along the lines of seasonal employment. The government cut EI premiums, particularly challenging those involved in seasonal employment, without providing any structural alternative to those programs for those people.
Seasonal workers in Atlantic Canada were hit extraordinarily hard. I heard the hon. member for Dartmouth say earlier that there was a $716 million loss to Nova Scotians. I would posit that loss was largely felt by those involved in seasonal employment: people working for farms in the Annapolis Valley, people working in the fisheries, people working for small business. Small businesses, farms, fish processors and other employees bore the brunt of those cuts.
Did the government create a new agency or co-ordinating body to help co-ordinate seasonal work such that seasonal workers like people involved in agriculture in the summer could potentially participate in forestry work in the winter? No, it did not do anything. It effectively cut the money but did not replace it with vision or with a commitment to new and visionary programs and better government. Instead it reduced the size of government.
It is not all about the size of government. Sometimes we have to talk about the role of government and the effectiveness of government. One of the areas in which the government could have played a more active role and could still play a more active role in is the creation of a pilot program in Atlantic Canada aimed at creating an agency that effectively co-ordinates seasonal workers so that those employed in such sectors as agriculture in the summer could have an opportunity to participate in other types of seasonal work like the forestry in the winter.
It would be able to effectively take those people who have been treated shoddily by the draconian cuts to the program and provide them with a sense of hope and a sense of opportunity by helping them focus their efforts on participating in the economy.
There are people with mortgages in my constituency who are trying to raise families, in many cases two or three children. They have effectively seen their incomes halved by the changes the government made to EI. They are struggling with $6,000 or $7,000 per year or less. That is a reality. That exists in many areas of Canada, not just in inner cities but in poor rural communities. It is a significant challenge.
We as a party have a fundamental belief in the free market economy, but a free market economy is not sustainable unless all members of society have access to the levers of that economy and equality of opportunity. If the EI program were properly structured, it could help provide access to those levers.
The creation of a separate commission would be a great step forward. Ultimately the decision making powers would be with those people affected most by the EI fund. We would assert that the employers and the employees are the correct proprietors of that fund. It would deny governments of any political stripe the opportunity to use the fund for politically motivated purposes.
At a time when there will be change in the workplace and change in the economy it would provide, for instance, opportunities for the EI fund to be focused on new and exciting areas, including providing Canadians with an opportunity to train and retrain throughout their lives. Those are the types of changes that are necessary.
I am not confident the government will make those types of changes. As long as it keeps EI premiums unnecessarily and offensively high and reduces benefits significantly without replacing them with any type of vision for the future, I do not think the government will ever engage in creative policy development focused on achieving the full potential of the EI program.
I would hope all members of the House consider the legislation very carefully and its potential in the long term. The government has taken $19 billion from the EI fund over the past several years to pad its own books. The past is the past. It is hard to change that now, but we do have an opportunity where we are emerging into a post-deficit situation where we can focus on doing the right thing.
Bill C-299 would be one of the first steps toward making the right decisions in the future to ensure that all Canadians and employers and employees benefit from the good public policy that we developed.