Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for Winnipeg Centre for his speech. It was very interesting. I had the opportunity to visit his riding not long ago, during the symposium on child care. I found that, even though Winnipeg may be poor, it is a city where people are very welcoming and generous.
My riding is also very poor. There are people who, for the most part, are on welfare because they are not entitled to employment insurance benefits. We certainly wonder why the government wants to create a new department when it is not even able to meet the needs and demands of the people who are entitled to EI benefits because they have been paying premiums for years. This is insurance, not a program that the government is paying for. It is the people who are paying for this.
I wonder how my colleague can think that his province is unable to provide social and community services to its citizens, when the government that would want to do so, the federal government, is unable to manage its own programs or to solve problems such as mad cow disease, the softwood lumber dispute and scabs. These are very important issues that fall under its jurisdiction. How can the member believe that this government would be better than his own provincial government at solving the problems in his province?