Mr. Speaker, first, I would like to welcome all the young Canadians to the Acadie—Bathurst and Campbellton areas for the Canada Winter Games.
Mr. Speaker, on February 10, 2003, I asked a question in the House of Commons. The question was as follows:
Mr. Speaker, Human Resources Development Canada set up a pilot project to process applications for employment insurance benefits by telephone in Moncton, New Brunswick, called Teledec. Teledec was then transferred to Bathurst—in my riding—to serve claimants in New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island—
But unfortunately, they forgot to transfer or hire employees to help do this.
My question to the minister asked if HRDC intended to hire additional staff to help out.
In Bathurst, there are 30 employees at the call centre. Currently, despite all this responsibility, there are still only 30 employees.
Now, the call centre is responsible for all of New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island. It got to the point where the employees could no longer answer the phone. The wait was one, two or three hours long.
To cut the two or three hour wait, HRDC decided that, after five calls, clients would get a busy signal. Now, clients must wait up to two days before getting through to HRDC about employment insurance. Yet there is a $43 billion surplus in the Employment Insurance Fund.
We know that Groupaction does not wait that long. They got $22 million for one contract, $22 million for another one and then $1.5 million just for submitting the same report three times. Back home, Human Resources Development Canada is telling us that they will have to try and serve the people of New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island only with the employees they currently have on staff.
I met with those employees. Only 16 of them were still at work, because all the others were burned out.
Following my question, the minister or the parliamentary secretary, who is from Shefford, took one, two and then three weeks to assess the situation. The minister said that she wanted to ensure that good service was a priority.
Will the federal government act on this problem and treat these people like human beings? It is not because we live in Bathurst, in New Brunswick, that we should not be served like the people in Ottawa.
I look forward to hearing what the parliamentary secretary, who is replacing the minister tonight, has to say on this issue.