Mr. Speaker, I listened to what my colleague from the Liberal Party said. When one does not have the will, one surely cannot do anything.
If there were a deficit in the employment insurance fund, I might understand that the government did not have the means. However, it has $46 billion, which was taken from the employment insurance fund. Moreover, less than 50% of the unemployed draw EI benefits. Consequently, the government could have made an extra effort. This is a futile exercise that was presented by the Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development in terms of the assistance that people had every right to expect.
When they do not get assistance from the employment insurance fund, where do you think that people get assistance? When their head is in the sand, they get assistance from the provinces through welfare. When people want to receive welfare benefits, they must be at the end of their tether. Consequently, they must have no money in their pockets or in the bank. At that time, they can go on welfare. This is putting people up against the wall.
Now, why are we opposed to this bill? Because this is a very different situation: the splitting of a department in two. The second department will be called the Department of Social Development. One of our reasons for opposing the present bill is that we are against the establishment of such a department. Our expectations with respect to the employment insurance fund were not met. We know full well that the Canada Employment Insurance Commission is another small group. It will be continued and shall consist of four commissioners to be appointed by the governor in council. The four commissioners shall be the deputy minister of Human Resources and Skills Development, who shall be the chairperson of the commission; an associate deputy minister, who shall be the vice-chairperson; a person appointed after consultations with organizations representative of workers and another person after consultations with organizations representative of employers.
The Bloc Québécois was calling for something else, to better reflect the reality. We asked that the commission in question be comprised of the following members: the chairperson of the commission, the two deputy ministers or associate deputy ministers from Human Resources. Where it differs is that we called for seven employer and employee representatives.
We wanted a more open commission, one that is not internally managed and that is more transparent. In fact, upon taking office, the prime minister himself said he wanted more transparency and that he would be more responsive. Again, the government showed bad faith and, true to itself, it is continuing to do so with arrogance, claiming all powers.
We cannot give our support this time, because this is a very different situation from the one when the other bill was passed.