Mr. Speaker, following the last comment that was made, that is a pretty bad stereotype and a dangerous thing to say. Anyone who is considered to be using EI on a frequent basis may be in a circumstance of seasonal work and would love to be working year round. The stereotype that is being put out is a pretty sad one.
I went to the town of Port Union just two weeks ago and was told about how people hoped the plant would be sold to someone diversified enough to provide double the amount of time throughout the year to allow them to work that many months. The people agreed. I hardly consider that to be something akin to repeat offenders.
I will talk about EI in depth in just a few moments, but I have another point to make about the bill. I first came here, like other members, in 2004. At that time the contentious issue was the Atlantic accord. The negotiations were back and forth between the then prime minister, Paul Martin, and then premier, Danny Williams. To say it was heated is quite the understatement. When we finally settled on a deal that was satisfactory to both the province and the federal government, we knew the best mechanism by which we could establish it was through the budget. In other words, it was affixed to the budget as one lump sum payment with changes that would affect the equalization formula.
Here is the issue. When we brought this to the House to debate within a budget implementation bill, the anger from the Conservative side of the House was vehement. It was like watching Pavlov's dogs. Every time a member mentioned that there was a budget implementation bill, the Conservatives were incredibly angry. They asked how dare we slip this through. They said it was like some kind of”, is everyone ready for this term that I have heard, Trojan Horse. The Conservatives said that we had produced a Trojan Horse. That Trojan Horse was a miniature pony compared to what we have now. This thing is the size of an elephant.