A Trojan elephant, if it exists. It is 400-plus pages plus. It is unbelievable.
This is like looking for steak and ending up with about 200 tonnes of Spam that is shoved right through the system because everything is in here, clause after clause, change after change to this regulation and that regulation. One of the fundamental things the government has done to EI when it comes to the rules and regulations about employment insurance is to bring the decision making from the legislature to the cabinet table. It makes it much easier.
When we brought in pilot projects in 2005, we were faced with the prospect of an EI system that was falling down in seasonal industries, so we changed it. We went to the best 14 formula, which at the time was a pilot project, but it was voted on in the House under a minority Parliament. How is that? The idea of actually doing that is foreign. It is passed off as something that has been done before, something that is necessary, but yet it was only back in 2005 and even prior to that when it was considered sacrosanct to the validity of the chamber, the heart of democracy as it were.
When we look at this bill, one of the biggest changes is to old age security. Many of my colleagues have talked about this quite a bit, whether it is OAS or language. One those members, I am honoured to say I will be splitting my time with, is the member for Ottawa—Vanier. I look forward to his speech. He is a hard-working employee of the people who he represents and a fantastic member.
I will go back to the OAS changes. One of the fundamental things about old age security is that the government had talked about upping the GIS payments before it won its majority. I I would argue that only one-third of it was covered at the time. It could have upped it by more, probably closer to $700 or $800 of total expenditure. That would have raised the income level for the poorest of our seniors to a much higher level, taking many more people out of poverty.
Not once during the last election did anybody on that side of the House, whether it was Conservative propaganda or not, or even through ministers at the time, say that in no way, shape or form would this program meet the brick the wall. In no way, shape or form will this run itself into trouble 20 years down the road.
Shortly thereafter we found ourselves in a situation where the Conservatives decided that it would be a tough program to maintain at the current funding levels in 20 or 30 years from now. I could understand if the Conservatives had been in opposition and then went to government and decided that the program was not feasible in the future. However, when they had been in government since 2006 right up until 2011, certainly to God they had to know at some point that this program would need to be looked at.
The chief actuarial officer of the OECD, the organization that the Conservatives brag about quite a bit, and the Parliamentary Budget Officer all agree that this change is not necessary as Canada's old age security program is already sustainable.
A lot of people would say that it is only two years, but we should think about that two-year period. Some people say that it is well down the road and that we should not worry about it. In other words, we should not worry about it. We should let our kids deal with it because we will not around. That is pretty short-sighted and it goes against everything else when it comes to things like investments that we make.
Given the situation we are in and the fact that experts are saying that this does not need to be changed, even at that particular year down the road, why would the Conservatives be doing this? That is two years. To me, that represents a downloading to the province. People who are in a situation of extreme poverty may rely on the provincial welfare system and there is supplementary health care involved. Now, all of a sudden, that has to be extended for two years because at 65 they were able to claim old age security and if their income level was at a lower level they could have also qualified for the guaranteed income supplement.
That two years will be downloaded to the province, something the Conservatives said that they would never do. It has to be done that way, according to them, because it will save the system. However, time and time again we are hearing more people say that it is not really serious.
I will now go to employment insurance. What I am hearing time and time again is a fundamental misunderstanding of what seasonal work is to areas of the country. The mayor of St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, Mayor O'Keefe, had a point when he said that if these changes occur, the downgrading of services like search and research, the downgrading of other services, do we centralize outside of the island?
EI changes that affect seasonal work, where frequent users, under the government's category, represent 80% in my area of people on EI. They are not repeat offenders. It is the industry they work in. If there is one company across the street, as the minister heckled earlier, with full-time work and the person leaves the fish plant to go to that store and work all year round. That is one job to be filled by approximately 100 or 150 fish plant workers. Then the government says that maybe they can go from the fish plant over to the tourism sector because it is a newer industry and it is hoping to expand it. All that does is take one seasonal worker and put him in other seasonal work. That does not help seasonal workers at all.
What are these fish plants going to do? The plant that I spoke of earlier in Port Union wants to diversify its plant. It wants to attract industry, except now it will have nobody to work in the plant. It will shut down and will have little hope of opening because of the workforce problems. It is not workforce problems in the sense of getting temporary workers but in the sense that people will be shuffled around. They will not have the opportunity to fend for themselves or to get something else. The proverbial vacuum will suck all the skilled labour out of these smaller communities. If that is what the Conservatives want why do they not be honest?
My colleague from Essex earlier talked about how nothing was hidden in this budget, yet everyone has questions about seasonal workers. If people are within an hour's drive, they have to go to these jobs. What happens if a person lives on Fogo Island and there is ice in the harbour and the person cannot make it on the boat? What happens if someone does not have a car? What happens, what happens, what happens?
I am hoping that at some point the government will answer these questions, that it will take this into a full debate in the House. It is unfortunate that the government did not do that.