Mr. Speaker, I responded to the member's question in question period. Our government is absolutely committed to helping Canadians who are going through difficult times through no fault of their own. We are always concerned when people lose their job. This is why we have already taken unprecedented steps to ensure Canadians in need get the help they deserve when they need it.
The reality is the current employment insurance program automatically adjusts to the downturn in the economy and allows for increased access to EI, while providing longer benefits. In fact, 41 of the 58 EI regions now have easier access to EI than in October 2008. This translates to over 85% of Canadians having easier access to EI now compared to October of last year. To this extent, the system is working. It is designed to work that way. It is working just as the previous Liberal government designed it to work.
As to how the EI critic from that member's party wants it to work, or at least how he wanted it to work last year in committee, the member for Dartmouth—Cole Harbour said the following, “when you reduce to the flat rate of 360 hours”, as suggested by the member, “the cost is pretty significant”. He said, “keep the regional rates. This is to protect those people in high unemployment areas”. The Liberal EI critic was not in favour of this national standard idea, this coalition 45-day work year idea. He acknowledged the high cost. He said that we should keep the regional rates because they helped protect Canadians in areas that had historic or chronic high unemployment.
The Liberal EI critic thought this was a bad idea just last year. It is not just a bad idea but an irresponsible one. The fact is this 45-day work year scheme will cost untold billions. How would the Liberals pay for it? With job-killing payroll taxes on hard-working employers, employees and businesses.
That is not something our government will do. It is not the way to go. Higher taxes are not what Canadians need right now, but that is exactly what the Liberals want to give to them. In fact, the Liberal leader promised to raise taxes.
On this side of the House, through our Conservative government's economic action plan, we have lowered taxes. We have made unprecedented investments to help vulnerable and unemployed Canadians. We have added five weeks to EI benefits, taking the pilot project national. We have increased EI's maximum duration to 50 weeks. We are preserving over 130,000 jobs through better work-sharing. We have added significant funds to help speed up processing. We are investing heavily in skills training for Canadians so they can get the jobs of the future. We will continue to evaluate the effectiveness of these measures. We will be introducing further changes to EI later this year.
The Liberal opposition should get behind our government's efforts, support effective and responsible help for Canadians and ensure that its designs on power does not end up hurting Canadians just as our economy is showing some signs of renewed strength.