Mr. Speaker, I listened intently to my colleague from Nova Scotia, where the minimum wage is $10 an hour. Is he suggesting maybe most folks in Nova Scotia are really happy working for $10 an hour? It seems that is what he is suggesting.
Clearly the reason Canadians are afraid has nothing to do with New Democrats making them afraid. It is the government that is making them afraid, because it does not want to come clean. It actually does not want even to tell us what the definition is of suitable employment, job search and all of those things. If it did, it would have put that in the bill. Instead the Conservatives do it by stealth. They send a minister out to suggest that maybe it is this and another minister out to suggest that maybe it is that.
Finally they come clean and the Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development makes an announcement. The next day the Minister of Finance says to the premiers of Nova Scotia, P.E.I. and Newfoundland and Labrador that they can talk about that.
Who is confused? People on EI are confused, and they are confused because the government is still confused. It still does not know what it wants to do and still has not figured out exactly the definition of terms respecting the unemployed because it does not care about the unemployed, quite frankly.
What it really is about is punishing workers in our country. We have 1.4 million people unemployed, and the Conservatives talk about 100,000 available jobs. That is marvellous. Their arithmetic is faulty.
This is about having a sense of compassion for those who are unemployed and to trying to help them, not punish them.