Mr. Speaker, I received an open letter to the Prime Minister from 24 organizations that were never consulted on literacy. The minister may not be able to produce a list of the people she contacted, but I can provide her with a list of the people she did not contact.
The Minister of Human Resources and Social Development has specific objectives, but with the cuts announced over a month ago, it will not be possible to achieve all those objectives. I want to come back to the department's priorities, because with the cuts made on September 25, it will be impossible to improve Canadians' quality of life, build a highly skilled workforce, eliminate barriers to work and learning and ensure that programs in place produce the desired results. On the contrary, the government's plans are nothing less than impediments to the most vulnerable in our society, who are trying to get ahead.
The $13 billion surplus, $2 billion of it from the employment insurance surplus, does not seem to have been enough for the current government, because it has cut another $1 billion from programs that benefit the poor and the most vulnerable in our society.
How can the minister explain that she is cutting funding for employability programs, when $2 billion from the employment insurance fund is already being used for a purpose other than the one it is intended for?