Mr. Speaker, I believe I was sufficiently clear. We want employees and employers to sit on this commission too. I do not understand this government's refusal to allow the contributors to sit on the commission. I cannot understand this business-as-usual attitude. This government has not learned a single lesson, even after the unemployed came here to testify.
The Bloc Québécois shook things up with regard to the EI fund. The Bloc Québécois did the work in an effort to improve the fund, and we said they had the means. However, all that time, the Liberal Party denied having several billion dollars—$46 billion—in surplus funds. That is astronomical. They are clearly arrogant since they have continued to say, year after year, that they had the money.
I remember the former Prime Minister, Jean Chrétien, saying in the House, “We will show the provinces that we can maintain the social programs”. I understand why he was able to say that, given the fiscal imbalance, slashed transfer payments to the provinces and, later, the employment insurance fund. I can understand why the federal government, which is swimming in surpluses, can be so arrogant and can force the provinces to their knees. More than ever, we demand that the EI fund be opened up to its contributors and that the government stop considering itself the beneficiary of this fund, which belongs to those who contribute to it.