Madam Speaker, it is ironic that the government is using time allocation to ram through this budget, because the budget itself imposes a far more brutal type of time allocation on unemployed workers in Regina. It is depriving laid-off workers in my city of the additional weeks of employment insurance benefits that the budget provides everywhere else in Saskatchewan and across Alberta.
On Friday, Statistics Canada reported that for the first time since 1989, Saskatchewan did not stay below the national unemployment rate. Last month and the month before were the only two months in the entire history of Statistics Canada's labour force survey, since 1976, that Saskatchewan had a higher unemployment rate than Quebec.
In light of these figures, will the finance minister finally include Regina in the budget's extension of employment insurance?