Mr. Speaker, Quebec's motto is Je me souviens, “I remember”. I remember when Jean Chrétien took power in 1993, he decided to get rid of the Conservatives' $54 billion deficit at the expense of the provinces and the unemployed by downloading responsibilities onto the provinces and slashing employment insurance. That was the Liberal style of government with Jean Chrétien as Prime Minister and Paul Martin as Minister of Finance. When they got together in 1993 and decided to eliminate the deficit, they asked the minister at the time, Doug Young, to squeeze employment insurance by increasing premiums and cutting benefits. It was a tough job that Doug Young started and Liberal minister Axworthy finished.
This week, we witnessed the creation of a Liberal-Conservative coalition. Because of the difficult economic situation, we are calling on the government to eliminate the two week waiting period and reduce the eligibility threshold to 360 hours. While in opposition, the Liberals called for the same thing as the NDP and the Bloc Québécois. The Bloc Québécois is not here just to defend Quebec's rights, but to defend the rights of all workers and the unemployed. While the Liberals were in power, they governed like Conservatives. Now we have a panel made up of Liberals and Conservatives.
Today I am asking the member who will be on the panel if he is ready to commit right now to working very hard to achieve two goals: eliminating the two week waiting period and introducing a single 360-hour eligibility criteria for benefits. If he cannot do that, he should just take a vacation because he will be wasting his time on the panel.