Mr. Speaker, the minister lives on fiction and fancies. The Conservatives are grateful for small mercies, but more than 320,000 families are still without hope. For many, the problem is getting worse. The jobless rate today is up in St. John's, Quebec City, Montreal, Calgary, Edmonton and Abbotsford. In some places, like Kitchener, St. Catharines and Windsor, unemployment has reached double-digit levels.
Why will the Conservatives not take at least some of the pressure off hard-hit families by letting more of them qualify for employment insurance? What is wrong with that?