Mr. Speaker, I listened with great interest to the speech of the minister responsible who plays a big role in the distribution of wealth.
In the throne speech, two excerpts seem to reflect a vision of the past rather than one of the future. The old age pension plan is praised, and it has indeed worked well in the past to fight poverty. I would however have liked to find initiatives dealing with the current problems experienced by the elderly.
For example, for many women living on their own, with the cost of the food basket for their daily needs, the increase in the price of drugs, the increase in the cost of living and all other expenses, the existing program—and I will show this—no longer meets their needs.
There was no announcement to this effect, other than the fact that a plan that worked in the past had been developed. There is no message of hope.
There is another much more aggressive sentence in the throne speech. It reads, and I quote:
There was a time when losing a job also meant immediate loss of income for workers and their families. And so Canadians created employment insurance.
It takes a lot of gall to say such a thing in the throne speech. What was created 50 years ago was an unemployment insurance plan to meet this need. But all employment insurance has done since its inception is increase poverty throughout Quebec and Canada by tightening the requirements it set, by the fact that fewer people are eligible for it.
After the Prime Minister recognized during the election campaign that the employment insurance plan was a bad move, that it needed corrective action, are we going to find in the bill to be tabled shortly things such as an increase in the level of benefits from 55% to 60% and the elimination of discrimination against women and young people entering the labour market? Will Quebec be entitled to its own parental leave plan?
There are a lot of other situations. I would like the minister to tell us whether there will be something to help us reach this objective or do we have to be content with what was in Bill C-44, which was tabled before the election?