Mr. Speaker, on May 7, I put a question to the human resources development minister about the crab crisis. My question read as follows:
My question is for the Minister of Human Resources Development. More than 1,800 plant workers have been affected by this crisis and find themselves without work. There is a $44 billion surplus in the EI fund. What plan of action has the minister come up with to help the provinces affected, like New Brunswick and Quebec, to compensate workers for loss of income?
And this is what the minister answered:
—it is because the employment insurance fund is in such good shape that the benefits will be there, not only for fishers but fish plant workers. I would remind the hon. member that every year the Government of Canada transfers $90 million to the jurisdiction of New Brunswick so that it can deal with issues precisely like this one.
Last week, I asked the same question in the House and the member for Beauce, who is the Secretary of State for the Economic Development Agency of Canada for the Regions of Quebec, said clearly that there was no more money left in the EI fund, that it had all been spent.
Here, the minister is telling us that the fund has so much money that the government can provide benefits not only to fishers, but also to plant workers. In her response, the minister mentioned $90 million that was given to New Brunswick. Later, we will be able to read that more than $600 million was given to Quebec for labour market training and for cases such as this.
Let me give an example of the problem we are dealing with. On Friday, I confronted New Brunswick's labour minister and said to him, “The federal government is giving you $90 million. What is that about?” He answered, “No, the $90 million agreement is for long-term training. The agreement contains a clause that says that we cannot use this money for emergencies like this. This money must be used for training programs”. Quebec has said the same thing, that it cannot use this money.
So, there are two versions. I can understand what the province is saying, that the $90 million was given specially, because it was calculated. The federal government said, “We need to give you $90 million to train all these people”. Then, there is a crisis all of a sudden, and the federal government says, “Use the $90 million”. However, if money is taken from that amount, if Quebec dips into its $600 million that was provided for a specific program, then the people who were supposed to get training will not have the money, because it will have been used to solve the current crisis.
Can the minister tell me if the federal government—given that the fishery problem and the quotas come from the federal government—is able to help the provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec and give additional money in response to the crisis? Those who are suffering are plant workers who had nothing to do with this. They are the victims.
I would like to have more information on the program. I would also like to know how they see the program, because in New Brunswick, the labour minister said the opposite of what the Minister of Human Resources Development is saying.