Mr. Speaker, the federal government has been accumulating enormous surpluses in the employment insurance fund for eight years now. The fund now stands at $45 billion, all ready for a rainy day it would seem.
When the North Shore fishery workers find themselves with nothing, with no more cod or crab to catch or process, and no hope of any other means of livelihood, that is a rainy day.
Will the government admit that the time has come to use the surplus in the employment insurance fund to provide special assistance to the people of that region?