Mr. Speaker, a year ago when I pointed out that employment insurance payments were taking six to eight weeks to reach laid off workers in eastern Ontario, the minister promised that her department would soon meet its four week promise of performance.
A year later things are worse, not better. Laid off workers have to wait as much as eight weeks. A local weekly reports that one young woman has been forced to survive on social assistance payments of $50 a month while waiting for benefits to which she is legally entitled.
The Liberal government has never been shy about extracting EI premiums from eastern Ontario. Why will the government not devote the manpower needed to pay out timely EI benefits?