Mr. Speaker, when we talk about balance on our side and speak specifically to the issue of the surplus being as large as it is, there is a lot of wiggle room for governments to provide effective tax relief while still making debt payments and strategic investments into social programs.
On the issue of the EI surplus, we have always argued that the benefits should be there. Obviously it is the workers and the employers who are paying into it and therefore the benefits should be there and there should be ample benefits when they are required. However what is happening is that the government is collecting far more than it should be collecting. From the amounts that are being paid out, we are looking at amounts that are obviously much less than what the government is actually collecting.
The argument we have been making is that if that surplus is there it should be returned to the rightful owners, the employees and employers who are working so hard to make ends meet. Outside of that, of course, there is enough to pay out the proper benefits in cases where people are falling on hard times or requiring the benefits to be paid out.
It is a myth, and I know the NDP often perpetuate the myth, that in order to balance effective tax relief or debt reduction, social programs are going to be sacrificed. There is no reason that should happen with a prudent fiscal management plan. We have been putting that plan forward, a plan that has often been endorsed by many actuaries and people in the accounting world. We have thought it through and we can make it balance but we need to be honest with the numbers, as many of my colleagues have said, and that is something that we still have not seen from the government.
