Mr. Speaker, this debate is very timely, I appreciate it and I congratulate the member for bringing this before the House.
I am concerned about the double standard at HRDC. This does relate to the employment insurance program. I will try to point this out in as short a time as I can. I see a double standard in the way unemployed workers are treated compared to chief executive officers of the country.
I need only go back to a year or so ago when we had the billion dollar debacle at HRDC. We remember that missing billion dollars that the minister could not account for. We can argue on what the real number was, but the fact of the matter is that not one chief executive officer from any company was ever brought before the minister or her tribunal to determine how those moneys were spent. Yet we see that meanspirited sort of interrogation used by the commission against workers who qualify for employment insurance benefits when it is determining whether or not workers are eligible.
In other words, officials are using heavy handed, almost brutal techniques against the unemployed of the country to basically deny them benefits. I want the member to comment on that. I know it is happening in New Brunswick. I am wondering whether or not it is happening in other parts of the country, specifically the province of Quebec.