Mr. Speaker, women often hold part-time, temporary or casual jobs. Many women simply do not accumulate enough hours to be entitled to employment insurance benefits. The figures speak for themselves. Only four out of 10 unemployed workers have access to EI, but the figure is just three out of 10 for women. That is unacceptable.
It is clear that the EI reforms for so-called frequent claimants will penalize women in particular. I recently met with representatives of the Seigneurie-des-Mille-Îles school board to talk about female workers in my riding—early childhood educators, special education workers, monitors and bus drivers—who are laid off every summer.
The Conservatives must stop going after female workers and come up with a job creation plan that helps combat this instability.