Lost his last election, in 2006, with 38% of the vote.
Atlantic Groundfish Strategy June 5th, 1998
Absolutely not, Mr. Speaker. On the contrary, I can say that we did not make an offer or a proposal. The people we sent out went precisely to consult the governments of the Atlantic provinces, and to see whether certain of the Government of Canada's ideas were in line with theirs.
We are aware that the same solution may not be right for every community or every province. That is why we are working in conjunction with the provinces.
Transitional Jobs Fund June 5th, 1998
Mr. Speaker, the funds in the transitional jobs fund will be spent over the coming months, up until March 31, 1999, as we have committed to do.
I welcome this opportunity the hon. member for Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup—Témiscouata—Les Basques has given me to say that, at the heart of the employment insurance reform, there is the new Canada-Quebec agreement, a historic agreement on manpower.
It is part of this reform that will see $2.7 billion transferred to the Quebec government so it can implement active measures for unemployed workers and welfare recipients in Quebec, who will then have a better chance of re-entering the workforce.
Transitional Jobs Fund June 5th, 1998
Mr. Speaker, on the contrary I think that if there is a government in this country that has acted responsibly over the past decades it is the one led by the current Prime Minister.
Our government is acting responsibly by making difficult and courageous decisions, when necessary, in order to help people break out of the cycle of dependency the Bloc Quebecois wants to keep them in.
I can assure you that we are doing them a service by making available to them tools far more useful than a cheque every two weeks, which is what they would be condemned to live on for years to come.
Employment Insurance June 5th, 1998
Mr. Speaker, what the member has failed to point out is that the number of jobs in Canada has jumped by 1.2 million since October 1993 because of a healthy economy, because we have put our fiscal house back in order, because we now have active measures to help workers back into the job market, because of 30,000 such jobs, and because of the transitional jobs fund in regions where unemployment was too high.
Employment Insurance June 5th, 1998
Mr. Speaker, the EI reform was absolutely essential. The EI system we had in Canada had not changed in 25 years and did not serve the public's interests well. It had to be modernized and adapted to contemporary reality.
I know that the Bloc Quebecois members love passive measures and anything to do with the past. They are always pushing passive income support, when what people are calling for is a dynamic labour market and help entering it.
Canadian Transportation Accident Investigation And Safety Board Act June 5th, 1998
moved that Bill S-2, an act to amend the Canadian Transportation Accident Investigation and Safety Board Act and to make a consequential amendment to another Act, be read the second time and referred to a committee.
Employment Insurance June 4th, 1998
Mr. Speaker, some aspects of this reform were not working at all. The fact that the family income supplement we introduced in our reform applied to total family income and not to individual income, as it did under the preceding government, was clearly unfair, and this was recognized in all the reports on how the system was working.
We also wanted to put the system on an hourly basis in order to give Canadians a fairer and more equitable system. There is no contradiction, because we wanted to improve on previous reforms and correct some of the errors made by the previous government.
Transitional Jobs Fund June 4th, 1998
Mr. Speaker, I am always amazed by the exaggerations of the member across the aisle.
The example used was BPS. The member said that 124 workers had not been paid a thing. He asked “Where has the million gone?”
I must tell the member that these workers were paid for seven months before there were difficulties. When we realized there were difficulties, we corrected the situation immediately.
Transitional Jobs Fund June 4th, 1998
Mr. Speaker, what I think needs to be made very clear for members of the House and for the Canadian public is that the transitional jobs fund has proceeded on 700 projects and has created more than 30,000 jobs in this country. Out of 700 projects, maybe six or seven of them have not done so well.
I think that six or seven projects having difficulty out of 700 is a very good average.
Atlantic Groundfish Strategy June 4th, 1998
Mr. Speaker, the package we are preparing contains a number of options. It will contain several development tools, and I hope that we will be in a position to announce it very soon.