Mr. Speaker, this bill is shameful. I admit that it brings slight improvements to the so-called reform we began talking about in 1994. Through this reform, the unemployment insurance plan, which actually needed to be reviewed but not transformed nor diminished, has in fact become a plan whereby the government gets richer but people in need get poorer.
This bill, not the one we have now but the one which became the so-called unemployment insurance reform act, was renamed employment insurance plan without any consideration for what is actually going on.
I admit that the unemployment rate has dropped, but if it has gone down, it is largely because the Canadian economy has been pulled along by the American economy. However, the unemployed who continued to suffer from not being able to find a decent or permanent job have been badly hurt by the new employment insurance plan.
The public must realize that the government is introducing in the House a bill proposing slight improvements by reducing cuts which should never have occurred and which total around 8% of benefits paid.
What is the government really aiming at through these slight improvements? It wants to gain full control over the fund, which contains a surplus of $36 billion to $38 billion—we will know the exact amount soon—taken from the incomes of workers and businesses.
Again, these contributions are paid up to a maximum of $39,000 of gains earned by workers and up to $39,000 paid by businesses. Beyond that limit, there are no contributions to employment insurance. This means that the $37-$38 billion, which went in full to eliminating the deficit, was paid for by low and middle income people, but mostly by small and medium size businesses.
They were paid mostly by these people. Higher wage earners pay a smaller percentage of their income in EI premiums, as do capital intensive businesses, which pay their employees high wages.
The government should take over, push the commission aside and decide on its own—that is how it was supposed to be—what the level of the premiums should be. This is some very bad news that will only make people more cynical.
To make it look like the money will really be used for specific purposes, EI or Deductions for EI purposes is written on paycheques.
Ever since employment insurance has been in effect, the number of eligible recipients has decreased significantly, almost by half, but what is even worse is that the hardest hit were young people.
I have heard members make eloquent statements in this House to the effect that young Canadians need jobs. Yes, absolutely. However, the EI system is designed to ensure that, between jobs, no one has to go on welfare or take just any job because they need money. That is no way for young people to start building a future for themselves.
This bill will bring the benefits of seasonal workers back to the same level as those of all unemployed. This is good news. It was necessary. We strongly opposed this penalty imposed on seasonal workers, which was part of the employment insurance reform, but we also know that this was not a coincidence and that the government refused to listen not only to those affected but also to those who worked with the seasonal workers in those regions.
As members of the Standing Committee on Human Resources Development, we knew that those in charge of unemployment insurance were targeting seasonal workers. They thought that by penalizing them they would force them to relocate.
Not all workers in Newfoundland are prepared to relocate. I heard many men and women say that they wanted to raise their children with dignity on their own land. What those at the highest levels wanted was to force these people to move away and look for work in regions where work was available.
This bill proposes modest improvements regarding the employment insurance eligibility of women about to give birth, but there are huge flaws in this system.
I am sorry to say that the fundamental problem for seasonal workers is not that their benefits declined from 55% to 50% of their salary, which is serious; it is the reduction in the number of benefit weeks, which creates a 4-5-6 or 7-week gap, as they call it in that region, when they do not have any income at all. It is the reduction in the number of weeks that penalized seasonal workers most, and this bill does nothing about that.
As for pregnant women who want to draw on the plan, was the required number of work weeks brought back to a decent level? No, not at all. The plan, which has been lowered to 600 hours, still has this requirement, which totally excludes many women, not to speak of self-employed women.
This bill, which provides for slight improvements, has huge gaps. In particular, it allows the government to lay its hands on money that is not its own. The government should at least recognize that it is indebted to the people and state that it will put this money at the workers' disposal if they ever need it because of a recession. What we are proposing is a true reform.