Mr. Speaker, I would like to congratulate the parliamentary secretary on being named the hardest working MP of the year. It seems his colleague will applaud just about anything.
Page 176 of the budget shows that employment insurance revenues will be going up.They will rise from $22.6 billion to $25.2 billion, then to $26.6 billion. Compare that to the information on page 180, which shows that the cost of employment insurance benefits is expected to drop.
Employment insurance benefits are the moneys paid out to unemployed workers, and employment insurance contributions are collected not from the government, but from employees and employers. There is a big difference between the two, and over the past four years, that difference added up to a surplus of $19.2 billion. How can they say they have a $19.2 billion surplus when they took that money from workers and employers? Is this theft, or is it a new tax?