Madam Speaker, I would like to congratulate my colleague, the hon. member for Argenteuil—Papineau—Mirabel, for his fine speech on the President of Treasury Board's intentions to get his hands on the loot, somewhat in the same way as the Minister of Finance did with the employment insurance fund.
I am looking at the figures here. Going back 20 months, the surplus was $30.2 billion, and if the trend continues, a quick calculation would indicate that it must be pretty close to $33 billion. It is no longer $30 billion, but close to $33 billion.
Where does this surplus come from? The public service has contributed $14.9 billion, the RCMP $2.4 billion, and finally the Canadian Armed Forces $12.9 billion. Adding all this up, it comes to a surplus of $30.2 billion. Those were the figures as at March 31, 1998, just about 20 months ago. With the projection, I would suggest that the figure would now be $33 billion.
The President of Treasury Board, before being appointed Ambassador to Paris, wants to make his time here in the House of Commons worthwhile by doing something memorable. He is getting ready to deliberately get his hands on this money. Now a committee is going to be struck to administer this surplus, with some friends of the government of course, as was done with André Ouellet, the former member for Papineau—Saint-Michel.
He was appointed chairman of the Canada Post Corporation, with a salary that far exceeds what he was earning as a federal minister, without having to be concerned about voters but with trips all over the world to see how postal services operate in other countries.
So, the President of the Treasury Board is about to set up a new committee to manage the surpluses, but that committee will include very few workers. The minister even neglected to consult the unions of the three groups to find out how these surpluses could be managed.
Also, we learned on March 31, 1998, that $3.1 billion must be paid to retirees, while $1.8 billion is coming into the fund. One might think that if the fund must pay $3.1 billion in pensions while receiving only $1.8 billion in contributions, it will get smaller every year. Not so. A fund of that magnitude can easily earn in excess of 10% annually, without any risk.
At a rate of 10%, an amount of $33 billion will earn $3.3 billion. The current outlay is $3.1 billion. This means that the interest alone provides enough money to pay the pensions to retirees. In fact, the government could even decide right now to give a contribution holiday to all employees of the public service, RCMP and Canadian armed forces. It is worth doing the calculating.
The President of the Treasury Board, and member for Hull—Aylmer, is about to get his hands on $33 billion. What will he do with that money? Perhaps he will do like the government did with the employment insurance surplus. Sixty per cent of workers pay EI premiums but, when they apply for benefits, unfortunately six out of ten do not qualify. They are told that they must pay premiums of $2.55 on every $100 of insurable earnings but that they will not qualify for benefits. Barely four out of ten qualify for benefits, and those benefits are for increasingly short periods and increasingly small amounts.
Clearly, the Minister of Human Resources Development, whom the member for Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup—Témiscouta—Les Basques sometimes refers to as the wise guy, led a very sheltered life. He has no idea what it means to earn $8 or $10 an hour. He had everything handed to him and now he is after the $21 billion surplus built up by workers in the past four years. It is truly scandalous.
To get back to Bill C-78, I would like to tell the House about a very sad case. This is something that is going on in the riding of my colleague, the member for Saint-Jean, with former Singer employees. I am sure members will remember Singer sewing machines. When I was young, my mother always had a Singer.
Employees of this famous multinational cannot get at their pension fund because of the federal government's refusal to help.
On the weekend, I was speaking to one of my friends, a former SAL employee and BC mine worker. His name is Charles Lacroix. He told me he began working in the asbestos mines on November 21, 1970, while he was still very young. Year after year, he paid into the pension fund.
Of course he did not contribute much, but the company contributed 19 times as much as Charles. The matter of the employees' pension fund has not been settled yet. The corporation was replaced by a limited partnership called Lab Chrysotile. The matter of the pension fund is still before the courts. Workers are getting nothing from their pension fund, the matter has been dragging on for the past 13 years.
Does it not sound like Singer, though not as bad? I am told that the majority of Singer's former employees are either dead or very old. If tomorrow morning they were given $30,000 or $50,000, they could not make full use of it. The ball is in the government's court; it is wilfully delaying any settlement. The matter has been before the courts for I do not know how many years. The member for Saint-Jean talked about this earlier this morning. He might do it again.
The employees of the corporation, the asbestos company, of Lab Chrysotile, of Mazarin, which is part of this group, are having problems. The matter is before the courts, to the delight of the lawyers. We know who makes the laws around here. It is not the lawyers. “You scratch my back and I'll scratch yours”. This is what is going on. Unfortunately, it is always the most vulnerable members of society who foot the bill.
This is exactly what is going on with the employment insurance. Doug Young learned his lesson on June 2, 1997. He got his answer. I congratulate the men and women who ran for the New Democratic Party in New Brunswick, and defeated Dominique LeBlanc, who was on the same wave length as Doug Young. This does not mean Doug Young is unemployed. He is in cahoots with the local premier and he will make as much money, if not more, through raising a toll on highways over there.
I thank and congratulate the men and women who worked hard to bring some order back to New Brunswick and get rid of braggarts like Doug Young.