Madam Speaker, I would like to thank the hon. member for his intervention. He does sit with me on the public accounts committee and I do appreciate his contribution to the committee. However I must take a couple of exceptions to some of the remarks he just made, while I may agree with some of them.
First of all, I do not see that there is any tax of any kind that could ever be called a benefit to our society.
The other area is this concept of notional account. The dollars taken for EI are real and expensive dollars. They are consolidated with all other tax revenues, as I explained in my speech, and the cheques that are paid out in EI benefits are all written out of the basic bank account of the Government of Canada.
We are required to keep track of EI revenues and expenditures in order that they may balance themselves roughly over the business cycle. That is the issue: real dollars in, real dollars out; $40 billion more real dollars in than has gone out. The chief actuary has said $15 billion is sufficient and we would have a surplus of $25 billion.
I appreciate the member's point of view about two different rates for small business versus big business. Today we have one expensive rate for all business and all employees. If the member has some compassion for small business and the lower income employees, why is he not standing in his place and demanding that the government introduce EI reductions for small business? It is a great start, but I have not heard him stand in his place and demand that. He has supported the government in keeping the rates artificially high, higher than they would otherwise be, not just for the high income wage earners, but even for the low income wage earners, and also for the small business people who sometimes have a difficult time making ends meet.
We have the worst of all worlds. We have an EI rate that is too high. There is no recognition of the complexity and the difficulty for small business people and low income earners, no recognition or sympathy, and everyone else has to pay.
I would hope that if the member believes that he would join with others such as ourselves in the official opposition to demand that the government bring openness and transparency, and explain itself as to what is going on, and how it could ensure that the rate be reduced.