Mr. Speaker, the government is in denial about a problem that is affecting unemployed Canadians across this country.
Right now, there are approximately 870,000 unemployed Canadians with no EI compensation. That means fewer than half of all unemployed Canadians are receiving EI.
People come into my office, frustrated by trying to navigate their way through a system that has been crippled by Conservative cuts.
One man has been waiting over two months for his EI cheque. On his last box of macaroni and cheese, he had to go to the food bank for the first time in his life, when he should have been receiving the EI he had been paying into for over a decade.
New Democrats are fighting for an EI system that is fair, accessible and effective. It is time for the government to wake up, do something to help unemployed people in this country and fix the employment insurance system.