Lost his last election, in 2006, with 38% of the vote.
Employment Insurance May 26th, 1998
What strikes me is that four members of the Bloc have risen to ask me questions today and none has spoken about the active measures to help workers return to the labour market. That is what the unemployed want.
None was interested in getting the unemployed out of the unemployment insurance trap and back to the labour market. No question from that side of the House, no positive contribution.
Employment Insurance May 26th, 1998
Mr. Speaker, on the contrary, I think the reform was undertaken in response to a fluctuating labour market, a market that is changing completely, where more and more people are working part time.
Employment Insurance May 26th, 1998
Mr. Speaker, our employment insurance reform has liberated thousands and thousands of women from the trap of the 15 hour week. Hundreds of thousands of women in Canada working 12, 13 or 14 hours a week, part time, were not covered. We released them from the 15 hour trap of the old system.
What about the woman in Sydney, Nova Scotia, who worked 14 hours a week in a store without any form of protection?
And if she had a second job of 12 or 13 hours to help her family out, she had two times no protection. Now she is covered for all—
Employment Insurance May 26th, 1998
Mr. Speaker, clearly, they are ignoring what I just said. I clearly demonstrated that seasonal workers with 45 and 50 hours in intensive weeks now have a better system to serve their needs.
Employment Insurance May 26th, 1998
Mr. Speaker, we could mention the transitional job fund, which has created thousands of jobs in disadvantaged regions. We could mention targeted salary measures to help him find work.
We could tell this seasonal worker that, under our new hours-based system, whenever he works 42 or 45 hours, he can build up many more insurable hours and get EI more easily because he has not perhaps worked as long, but the number of hours means he has faster access.
Employment Insurance May 26th, 1998
Mr. Speaker, what young people need is not easy access to employment insurance. What they need are placements in businesses, community work, useful experience they can put on a CV to help them get a job. This is a sensible job strategy. It is a strategy of providing opportunities for access to knowledge and education so that people can improve their future and raise a family. This is what young people need, this is what they have told us, and it is what we are giving them.
Employment Insurance May 26th, 1998
Mr. Speaker, eligibility criteria for employment insurance may be tougher for young people.
However, we on this side of the House are not trying to make it easier for young people to collect employment insurance, but to ensure that they stay in school as long as possible, benefit from the youth employment strategy and have access to higher education and knowledge. We have greater ambitions for young Canadians.
The Bloc Quebecois basically wants us to encourage young people to leave school as early as possible by making it too easy to collect employment insurance. This would not be good for the future of young Canadians.
Employment Insurance May 26th, 1998
Mr. Speaker, the opposition still does not understand the courage and boldness displayed by our government to adequately serve Canadians from coast to coast.
Our reform sought to change an unemployment insurance system that was neither fair nor equitable. We wanted to help Canadians break the cycle of dependency that existed in certain regions. We want to help create jobs in the regions that need them most. This is what our reform is all about.
Employment Insurance May 26th, 1998
Mr. Speaker, what I said yesterday was not that we did not understand the effects of the reform, quite the contrary, but we were not in favour of any hasty decisions, as the Bloc Quebecois apparently is.
What astounds me about the Bloc is that none of the bills it has tabled in this House aims to help any of the unemployed to return to the labour force. The measures are passive, old hat. There is no constructive reform relating to the modern market. They are proposing a return to the past, and we are saying no.
Transitional Jobs Fund May 25th, 1998
Mr. Speaker, I will look into the particular case that the opposition member is raising.
However, what I can tell him is that on every project involving the transitional jobs fund there is a lot of consultation with the provincial governments. We look at every one of them in a very serious fashion.
With $300 million the government has created thousands of very good jobs in Newfoundland and in the rest of Canada.