Madam Speaker, I too sit on the public accounts committee. I certainly support the Auditor General in almost all the recommendations that she comes down with.
The government needs to re-examine and regularize the way in which employment insurance is collected. I would take issue with the member opposite that this is a payroll tax that is having a negative effect on the economy. I would remind the member opposite that employment insurance is a shared charge. It is not just the workers who contribute to employment insurance, it is also the employers themselves.
In a very strong sense those who contribute to employment insurance are the very large manufacturing corporations, the automakers, the steel industry and so on. When we talk about reducing EI premiums we must remember that in doing so we are reducing the expenses of the corporation. It is not just the organized workers.
I would also observe that many of the people who pay into employment insurance are the unionized workers for the very large corporations who make, in the case of General Motors and some of the large automakers, the base rate. The base rate for unskilled labour is I think about $69,000.
I think one has to bear in mind that the payroll tax that we are talking about, and I suppose we could call it a payroll tax, I have no problem with that, is a tax that benefits the economy. The $40 billion I point out is a notional amount of money. We can debate how real it is. The point about the $40 billion is that it is not much less than the debt.
We do know that anything that the government can do to reduce the debt has a net positive effect on the economy. It creates jobs. I point out to the member for Prince Albert that Canada is leading the United States in economic prosperity and job creation right now.
How did that occur? The fact is that the government had its priorities straight. It looks to debt reduction. It is true that in the employment insurance procedures that are being undertaken right now I think that the government should revise how employment insurance is collected.
I would like to see a two scale system, where the large manufacturing companies and those sectors of industry in which the salaries are very high pay perhaps a higher employment insurance premium than those people who are in the less affluent and less safe sectors, the small businesses.
The message that we get from the Auditor General is that it is time for the government to again review employment insurance. It is time to structure it in a way that it does not simply benefit the large corporations and protect the large unions that have such benefits from their corporations that even when they are unemployed they have the opportunity of receiving 95% of their income.
We must take this message from the Auditor General that the way employment insurance is managed now is not satisfactory and turn it into an opportunity to give a break to those small businesses that have one, two or three employees and are forced to contribute to employment insurance and give the kind of protection that we need to give to the small entrepreneurs and the people who are in marginal income categories and for whom an employment insurance premium is a significant deduction from their payroll.
I must say that when we are in that category of worker where the base rate for unskilled labour is around $70,000, then I am not so sure that the employment premium of $2.10 is so terribly unfair.
I always support the member for St. Albert when he says laudatory things about the Auditor General because she has been doing excellent work now, but a government must always remember that its job is to govern and to find a way to manage the government's finances and the country's finances that benefit not just the best off in society, not just the best paid workers, not just the large corporations, but benefit small businesses and employees who have less opportunity.
I think a two tier employment insurance system is a great idea and I would love to hear the thoughts of the member for St. Albert.