Mr. Speaker, I feel like we are playing cat and mouse. The secretary of state is saying that 80% of Canadians are eligible for employment insurance, but we are saying that only 40% of those eligible are receiving benefits and that people are being excluded because they cannot access EI, which is becoming increasingly difficult to obtain.
I found some figures to illustrate this. The number of people receiving regular benefits dropped in all provinces in December. The largest decline, in percentage points, was in Prince Edward Island, where there are very few jobs in the winter and where the number of claimants dropped to 4.6%. In Newfoundland and Labrador, it dropped by 4.1%. In Manitoba, the number of people receiving regular benefits is now 3.3%.
In December, the number of claimants in Saskatchewan dropped by 2.5%; in Nova Scotia, by 2.1%; in New Brunswick, by 1.9%; in Alberta, 1.7%; in Quebec, 1.1%; in Ontario, 0.8%; and in British Columbia, 0.8%.
In conclusion, it is obvious that this reform is being completely improvised, and Canadians deserve a better safety net than that. They are entitled to more.
We are entitled to ask this government the following: what will happen to these people without jobs and without any income?