Madam Speaker, I have listened to my colleague's speech with interest. As far as employment insurance is concerned, the lack of an independent fund obviously constitutes a basic problem. In addition, the fact that money contributed by the workers of Quebec and Canada is being used for purposes other than the EI program is a major and fundamental problem, and one that has been raised.
Moreover, a few weeks ago, when the new Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development was still a Conservative, she voted in favour of such a motion. Now that she is on the Liberal side, she has decided to change her mind. She has not given us any worthwhile explanation for this rather surprising about-face.
I would like to have some other explanations from my colleague as well. We know the program we are proposing would of course provide active measures to enable older workers to find jobs. It would also provide income support measures for those unable to do so. They would therefore have access to bridging until they reached the age for the Quebec or Canada pension plan or the old age pension.
Does the member know that the cost of such a program is around $55 million for the first year, and $75 million for subsequent years? Not a huge amount compared to the total in the EI fund.
This morning, we heard some good news: the government will be voting in favour of our motion. What is my colleague's reaction to the fact that the government did not reinstate that long-gone program when the Liberals came back in?
Globalization has positive consequences, as we know, but it also has negative ones. Would putting such a program into place not be doing the right thing for workers in the sectors most penalized by it? Moreover, given the estimated cost of such a program, there ought not to be any delay. The government should be able to implement it as quickly as possible.