Mr. Speaker, the employees at the Service Canada call centre in my riding of Hamilton Centre and my constituents who rely on these services recently received the bad news that our local office was being closed no later than March 2014 and possibly as early as this Christmas.
This office plays a critical role in providing support to thousands of people in my hometown of Hamilton who need assistance with employment insurance, old age security and Canada pension plan applications. The closure means the loss of good paying jobs in our community. More importantly, my constituents who use these services, many of whom have literacy issues or language barriers, or do not have access to the Internet, are now at risk of being left behind. This is completely unacceptable.
The move to close the Hamilton office is part of a continuing trend by the Conservative government to save money at the expense of providing quality and timely services that Canadians expect and deserve from their public institutions. The Conservative government continues to fail my constituents just as it continues to fail Canadians across the country.