Mr. Speaker, there have been demonstrations just about everywhere. And there will be more, because the people who are victimized, who understand what the government is doing, refuse to accept and cannot understand. How can you understand, when your total income is $10,000, $12,000 or $15,000 per year, maybe less? How can you understand that the federal government is going to ask you to help pay for its poor management? How can you accept, when you are reduced to survive on the pittance provided under the unemployment insurance program, how can you accept with equanimity that the federal government will reduce your benefits? Especially when you know that the fund has a surplus.
This is the first time that we encounter a situation like this one. Some people might say: "Well the opposition is against it, this is its role, it has to oppose every project and every reform". This is not the case. This is the first time, as far as anyone can remember, that such a thing is being done during an employment crisis. All members have to do is find out what is happening in their ridings. We have an employment crisis, the unemployment rate is very high and the economy is not picking up, yet, this is the time that the government is choosing to take surplus money out of a fund to which it does not contribute. It takes the money and reduces the benefits provided through the fund. That is unprecedented.
You may recall the time when the Liberals were dashing across Canada to condemn the heartless changes made to the UI plan by the Tories. They were up in arms, making speeches in this House to explain how loathsome it was for the Conservative Party to dare tamper with the UI fund.
Today, they are the ones who are dealing with the deficit in the UI fund by taking $1.5 billion over two years away from the unemployed and taking back with both hands the $5 billion a year the finance minister needs to compensate for his government's mismanagement. This is unacceptable.
The minister is proposing a reform. I hope he will become more sensitive to the demonstrators, as well as to the motion we put forward today. I hope he will regain a little compassion for those who will be his next victims. I hope he will stop accusing those who demonstrate because they are being deprived of their liveli-
hoods of being lazy and reluctant to look for work and of being professional protesters.
The minister should change his attitude, as it is unacceptable. He should be a little more open to people in need and understand that his reform is not wanted. It is not wanted in the regions of Quebec. It is not wanted in the Maritimes. It is not wanted in Ontario either because it is unfair. It is regressive. It creates unemployment and poverty.
The proposed reform is hardest on young people. Unfortunately, they are the first to be affected, as is often the case. It hits young people hard by reducing their benefits and those of all other workers. Students working less than 15 hours a week will now have to pay premiums, which they did not have to do before. In any case, they will never manage to accumulate enough hours to collect benefits. I have plenty of examples that I cannot help using. A student working 15 hours a week for 52 weeks will have 780 hours accumulated at the end of the year. Do you know how many hours will now be required to qualify for benefits under the minister's bill? A total of 910 hours. Someone who works 15 hours a week will not accumulate enough hours to collect benefits. And there are many other examples.
The plan contains nothing for young people. Not only does it not support them, but it also takes benefits away from them. This plan also hits women hard because they often have to make do with part time work, and God knows how hard this reform is on part time employees. As for seasonal workers, they are the ones in the regions now trying to alert public opinion. They cannot even begin to imagine the adverse effects this reform will have on their everyday lives, but they do know one thing-as fishermen, forestry workers or people working in the tourist industry, whether in the Gaspe Peninsula, in the Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean region or in any other part of this country, they know that they need this system to earn a decent living. And the only alternative available to them, with this insensitive government dipping into the fund, their only way out will more than likely be to go on welfare.
There are examples galore. Virtually all classes of workers will be affected by this reform. But what is important to notice is that, while attacking these people in their very dignity, the government is telling the provinces: "Your transfer payments will be reduced. The Canada social transfer providing funding for social assistance, health care and so on will be cut". So much cutting has taken place that the Minister of Finance saw a need, in his budget speech, to set a threshold, realizing that the Canada social transfer had all but disappeared, which would have made it very awkward for the federal government to keep constantly interfering in jurisdictions that are not its own. But that is another story, and we will come back to it later.
By making cuts to the Canada social transfer, the Minister of Finance is attacking the provinces' budgets. He is shifting his responsibility onto provincial governments.
Did you know, Mr. Speaker, that the provinces will have to look after not only those workers whom the federal government will have deliberately kicked out of the UI system, but also individuals who will be forced onto social assistance, for which federal funding has been cut. Just imagine in what kind of predicament this government is putting the provinces and the regions. This is totally unacceptable.
The motion reads as follows:
That this House require the Minister of Human Resources Development to withdraw-
Not that he make a few minor amendments here and there and change this or that to keep helping himself to the fund, as he is doing now.
-withdraw Bill C-12, an act respecting employment insurance in Canada, from the Order Paper immediately and go back to the drawing board-
Because there is no way that the opposition, and the central labour bodies and organized labour groups, could agree to let this government feed on funds that belong to the workers.
Instead of attacking the workers, the government should-and we urge it to do so-go after those high income earners who do not pay any taxes and companies that take advantage of tax havens, the financial implications of which have not even been assessed by Finance Canada.
These would make interesting goals for the government, if only it believed in social justice. But no, the easiest and most obvious thing to do is to go after society's most disadvantaged, to try to take away from them the dignity of work, and the dignity of a system designed to provide support when they lose their jobs. We will not stand for that, Mr. Speaker. We will stop them.
To conclude, I would like to call upon the minister once again and warn him that it is certainly not with the kind of inflexible and arrogant attitude he has had from the outset that he will succeed in selling his plan to the people. The Liberal members opposite should think twice before supporting a minister who calls people lazy and professional demonstrators, and tells them that they lack motivation.
Our Liberal colleagues should think about it before associating with a minister who uses such language to describe individuals who face the harsh reality of life in their regions. When this minister visited his region and met real people faced with real problems that he is responsible for, we saw how it went.
I want to tell the Liberal members of this House that we from the Bloc Quebecois will not let you go ahead. We will not give you any respite. We hope that your constituents will not give you any either and that they will treat you the same way the Minister of Human Resources Development was treated by his constituents when he visited his riding.
