Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my hon. colleague for his excellent question.
Currently, with the bill it introduced, the government is casting aside an entire class of workers, which includes seasonal workers, part time workers, and women. Currently, most of those excluded from this plan are men and women in precarious jobs, who are paying into the plan like any other worker. The fact is that workers start contributing from hour one on the labour market, but a great many of them are excluded when the time comes to claim benefits. Entire regions are penalized by these measures.
There are regions that depend on tourism, agriculture or fisheries. The workers whose employers cannot provide employment on a yearly basis will be penalized. Not only will they not get between 5 and 20 additional weeks of benefits, but there is no guarantee that, from one year to the next, they will meet the eligibility requirements if only to put in a claim and receive a single week of benefits. I think it is shameful for a government to jeopardize economic recovery by mortgaging the future of the workers who find themselves jobless.