Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from the New Democratic Party for her question.
The issue is that the government has taken the EI program and fund, which existed for the benefit of workers and employers to enhance labour market flexibility which benefits all Canadians and the economy, and has created what is really an EI tax. Only 30% of those who pay into the EI fund actually qualify to receive benefits. As a result, 70% of that is an EI tax. Only 30% of the contributions to the EI fund are actually EI premiums. The government has taken an already complicated Canadian tax code and made it more complicated, less transparent and more confusing.
Through maintaining unnecessarily high EI premiums and slashing benefits at the same time, it has also created increased distortions. For instance, one of the goals of tax reform should be to reduce the distortions taxes may have on a particular part of the economy.
Canada has twice the unemployment rate of the U.S. We should be seeking to reduce the cost of the labour input to encourage more companies to hire people.
Instead by maintaining unnecessarily high premiums and by not developing more innovative programs, particularly in the areas of training and retraining, the government is denying labour market flexibility to Canadian companies and employees. That is absolutely unacceptable in a very competitive global environment.
In terms of the government trend of delving into the EI fund for other types of spending or in terms of using the public service pension plan, which is what we are talking about directly with Bill C-78, the government is in the position where it can change the rules as it goes. It can change the rules that will affect Canadians for decades while it is focused on its own limited goals which are focused on the next election. The impact of the next election and what the Liberals will be doing over the next couple of years to try to win that election could be very negative for Canadians for decades in the future.
I have heard it said that politics is the natural enemy of public policy. I am afraid that in this case that is the case. The Liberals are changing the rules to suit their own short term political goals. They change the rules as they go. Unlike the private sector pension plans, where Bill S-3, the Pension Benefits Standards Act, sets out guidelines for the private sector by which the private sector is expected to abide, this government can actually change the rules.
The government is saying that there is nothing legally stopping it from delving into this fund. If there is nothing stopping it, why does it have to introduce legislation in this House, force closure and deny parliamentary debate in order to implement this legislation so it has access? The government knows that it cannot access the pension fund unless it breaks the rules so it is changing the rules. Why? Because it is the government and it does not respect the parliamentary process.