Mr. Speaker, when will the government admit that even more people will be denied access to employment insurance as a result of this change? I want to remind the parliamentary secretary that only 40% of people have access to it now, when it is the workers and the employers who pay into the fund. It is absolutely not a government tax that pays into the EI fund.
The change will lower salaries, as the hon. member was saying. It will impoverish and stigmatize the unemployed. It will devalue the skills of our workforce and make appeal mechanisms stricter. It will impoverish thousands of unemployed people who work part time while receiving benefits and looking for full-time employment. It will weaken the economies of our regions that rely on seasonal industries such as the fishery, agriculture, forestry, construction and tourism.
Next week is national unemployment week. Workers, employers and the unemployed everywhere will raise their voice loud and clear to express how senseless this change is and that it only serves to further reduce access to the employment insurance system to which people are entitled. It is a way of driving our constituents into poverty.