Mr. Speaker, the member should know that under a Liberal government, payroll taxes went down. The EI premiums went down 12 years in a row. They went down for employers and they went down for employees.
It is the Conservative government that has frozen them. In fact the Conservative government has included that as part of its stimulus. It said that $2.5 billion of stimulus is because it held the rates on potential increases in premiums.
According to the Caledon Institute that is similar to standing up on a Tuesday and announcing that everyone's taxes are going to double the next day and then the next day cancelling it and saying that is a $236 billion stimulus. It is phoney accounting.
I will say this about EI. There have been investments in EI. That is because there are more unemployed people in this Conservative recession.
I do not doubt the people at Service Canada. I think we are blessed to have the people at Service Canada on the front lines in my riding, in Peterborough and across the country. It is the political leadership I question. We could do a lot better.