Madam Speaker, I am interested in my colleague's comments concerning employment insurance, especially as it relates to the transition and training fund as proposed in the Conservative budget yesterday. It is an awfully big number, $8.3 billion. However, when one starts to look at that number and breaks it out, over half of it goes to those who already work. There are $4.5 billion in the fund to ensure that EI premiums will not go up for the next two years.
If one is working, one does not collect employment insurance. That also includes employers that pay into the fund. They will get a holiday as far as the premiums are concerned, whereas that money could been have targeted towards those who do not work. However, when it comes to those who are vulnerable, those who do not collect employment insurance, when we start to break out the moneys, it is lower and lower.
Would my hon. colleague like to comment and perhaps tell us the impact that would have on vulnerable Quebec workers who do not qualify for employment insurance and the lack of adequate funding for those particular training programs?