Mr. Speaker, I cannot believe I am being lectured by a member on the opposite side about employment insurance.
Yes, we welcome the additional five weeks of support, but my goodness, five weeks of additional support is not going to be enough help. Moreover, the government limited those extra five weeks to a two year window. Employment insurance has been entirely paid for by workers and employers in this country. It is not the government's money to play with.
However, I guess it is now because in last year's budget the government legalized the theft of the EI surplus, $54 billion worth. We need to increase the number of people who are eligible for EI. We had that opportunity in the budget. The government did not take advantage of that and it is time to do the right thing now.