Mr. Speaker, the debate in this House has risen to a new low.
What I am hearing from many people in my riding concerns the urgency of dealing with the economic situation facing this country from coast to coast to coast.
Any number of experts have spoken about the fact that the Conservatives, in their economic update, simply took the wrong course of action.
A recent report by the Caledon Institute of Social Policy talked about flouting conventional wisdom worldwide that governments now have to spend and not save, the finance minister announced spending cuts and asset sales. The report goes on to state that “at this time social programs are more critical than ever because they are shock absorbers for individual households and that they are also fiscal stimulus when the times are tough”.
My riding is heavily reliant on the forestry industry. We are seeing forestry worker after forestry worker being laid off. One of the things that could help forestry workers in our communities is a revision of the employment insurance program.
I would like to ask the member why the economic update did not talk about the importance of revising the employment insurance program to meet the needs of workers in this country from coast to coast to coast.