Mr. Speaker, my colleague is talking about the situation with older workers. One of the things the Bloc Québécois wanted was an assistance program for older workers.
In reality, when a worker aged 55 and up loses his job, he is essentially forced to turn to social assistance. It is not easy for someone over 55 to find a new job. We hear simplistic comments, like the ones from the member for Jonquière—Alma, who told workers in his region affected by the forestry crisis and workers from the CSN that all they had to do was go work in Alberta. The Prime Minister said the exact same thing to unemployed workers in the Maritimes, telling them to go work in Alberta, where there is a labour shortage. But it is not so easy to split up or uproot a family or a community.
We were hoping for an assistance program for older workers, especially since such a program would cost just $60 million for all of Canada, at a time when the government has a $12.6 billion surplus.