Mr. Speaker, obviously the words of the hon. member for Saint-Maurice—Champlain are very eloquent. Here we have more than 50 people from the FTQ who have come from Montreal to bear witness to the situations they have faced or are now facing.
If the federal government wants to do something practical in the short term, quickly, to show that it is ready to treat these people fairly, in the coming budget there must be a program to help older workers.
When there is a surplus of $45 billion in the employment insurance fund, there must be a way to find a few hundred million dollars using the premiums these people have paid. It is not the federal government's money; it is money that was taken from the pockets of these workers in order to pay for something other than what they were paying premiums for. Now it is time to treat them with justice.