Mr. Speaker, it is sad to note that the Conservative government is asking for royal assent to ratify the Bloc Québécois’ employment insurance bill. Especially since, when the Conservatives were in opposition, they said that the government had taken $50 billion that belonged to companies and workers and that this money should be put back in an independent fund to make sure the government did not appropriate it for itself again.
The government helped itself to $50 billion to pay down the deficit and balance its budget at workers’ expense. This money belongs to those who pay into the employment insurance plan and not to taxpayers. There is a difference between the two. When we work, we pay income tax, we pay into the Canada pension plan and we pay EI premiums.The employment insurance fund belongs to the workers. The government is in the wrong.
Mr. Speaker, on behalf of the workers who need the money in the employment insurance fund, I ask that you rule that this motion be voted on by the elected representatives of Canadians so that we can make a decision here, in the House of Commons, to give this money back to those to whom it belongs.
It is shameful, the way the money has been taken from the workers for all this time. Today, we finally have a chance to vote on this subject. This is not income taxes. Mr. Speaker, you must rule on this point: is this the government’s money or is it an insurance fund that people have paid into? This money cannot be taken to pay down the deficit, as the Liberals did to balance the budget. Is it the Conservatives’ turn to take this money now?
Mr. Speaker, I ask you to make a different ruling than the one you made in the past, because I think that the arguments were not conclusive as to whom this money belongs to. It belongs to those who paid into the employment insurance fund, namely the workers and their employers, not to the Conservatives or the Liberals.