Mr. Speaker, the member raised some interesting issues, particularly about EI. The member has been very vocal on the subject with regard to the need to have a vision as to what is going to happen to the people in each and every one of Canada's provinces and regions when the full impact of the job loss occurs. We have inevitable problems with older workers, who may never find the gainful employment that they enjoyed before they lost their jobs.
We have a government that failed to recognize that the EI system is already overloaded, that there are significant delays in processing claims, that people are going to need it, and that the government should have thought of dealing with the two-week waiting period as opposed to simply adding five weeks to the end. It fails to recognize these challenges.
It also fails to recognize that people who lose their jobs are in a stressful, desperate situation. Health care costs are going to go up as a result of mental and physiological problems, as well as the demand on social services that will need to be provided, and the fact that crime and criminal justice costs will inevitably rise, particularly policing. Health care, social services and policing costs are all provincially funded and yet the transfers to the provinces did not go up to take care of these inevitable problems that are going to occur.
I ask the member whether or not he sees these as potential problems that people in Canada are going to face as a result of this and that the government has in fact failed to respond to the inevitable needs of Canadians.