Mr. Speaker, not only does the Bloc Québécois not have confidence in this government, but it does not have confidence in the government's economic forecasts.
As recently as a year ago, the economic crisis did not even exist as far as the Conservatives were concerned, and they said they would not run a deficit. Today, the deficit is $56 billion or $57 billion. What is strange is that this is roughly the same amount of money that was stolen from the employment insurance fund. This year's deficit did not go toward EI to really help workers. In fact, I do not believe the government has helped the unemployed.
The Minister of National Revenue says that employment insurance programs must have a beginning, a middle and an end. With his additional five weeks of benefits, it would seem that the minister started at the end. He should have started at the beginning. He cannot even follow his own logic.
All I can say is that he had a beginning a few years ago, he has more than past the middle and he is now approaching his end. The future former Minister of National Revenue and future former member will understand that the necessary work on employment insurance has not been done and that people still have huge problems.
It is clear that the new employment insurance program, with additional weeks of benefits, was designed for people who are lucky enough to keep the same job for a very long time, but that it represents a trap for the NDP, because it targets Ontario specifically and does nothing to help forestry workers in Quebec.
We therefore do not have confidence in this government or its policies. This government needs to be a bit more open to Quebec, practise open federalism and listen a bit more to what the opposition is saying. It is acting like a majority government, when it knows it is not. Moreover, it knows full well how that sort of behaviour affects support for this government in Quebec, because almost no one there has confidence in the government anymore.