Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Finance. It took 22 months for the minister to decide to ignore the economic security of Canadian workers who are unemployed. Last month 45,000 people lost full time jobs and thousands more will in the future. The majority of people who paid into EI will not even qualify for employment insurance benefits.
In his budget, why did the minister not ease the eligibility requirements for people to qualify for EI or to protect Canadian workers and protect those families?