Mr. Speaker, it is my pleasure to introduce several petitions signed by several hundred people in my riding in northwestern British Columbia. They have identified that with a $51 billion surplus in the employment insurance fund since 1994, and with only half of the workers in Canada actually being able to qualify for this fund, the government should introduce the 28 recommendations from the standing committee, which were adopted by all parties.
A second set of petitions of several dozen to 100 names also asks the government to in effect partition the employment insurance jurisdiction in northern British Columbia, which seems, by the government's admission, to have inadvertently locked in areas that are doing extremely well economically and have less than 3% unemployment with areas that have in excess of 80% unemployment. It seems only fair.