Mr. Speaker, I welcome this opportunity to take part in today's debate on the modernization and restructuring of Canada's social security system.
In particular, I am pleased that the Minister of Human Resources Development has proposed to consult as broadly as possible with the Canadian people by directing the Standing Committee on Human Resources Development to listen to Canadian concerns and priorities regarding all aspects of the social safety net.
This grassroots approach is precisely what Canadians have been demanding for many years. During the last election Canadians told us that social assistance programs and unemployment insurance are not leading them back to the work force.
Canadians are right to be concerned. We risk becoming polarized into two camps, those who have jobs and those who do not. Too many people are not working. Too many people want jobs and cannot find them.
Part of our social safety net is comprised of social assistance or welfare administered by the provinces. Social assistance has been designed to help those whose lives have a taken an unexpected turn for the worst. It helps the disadvantaged and the disabled. It ensures that people have the basics of life, food, shelter and health care. In some cases social assistance also provides training programs to prepare clients for jobs and independence. Through this process a new idea has emerged.
Social assistance that provides the basics of life is no longer enough. Social assistance also needs to be geared to making people more confident, self-reliant and ready to re-enter the work force.
It is true that welfare is a provincial jurisdiction but the federal government must not and cannot shirk its responsibility. The federal government is an important part of the social safety net. We have the responsibility of the unemployment insurance fund which distributes up to $20 billion annually and the same problem that besets social assistance also affects unemployment. It does not lead people back to the work force. For too many people unemployment insurance is just a stop along the way to welfare.
Besides unemployment the federal government has programs that assist the elderly, veterans, disabled and aboriginals. We also provide transfer payments to the provinces to help support health, education and social assistance programs. These direct and indirect expenditures represent the single largest component of federal spending. It is in the amount of $70 billion, slightly over half of all our federal program spending.
High taxes and huge debt are crushing Canada's economy. On the other hand social assistance programs that generate a continuous cycle of dependency are crushing the lives of millions of Canadians. We simply cannot afford either financially or morally to continue this cycle.
The Canadian people know that our social programs, both federal and provincial, are strained to the limit. Many feel they no longer do what they have been designed to do.
Instead we need a brand new model so that we would better meet the needs of the Canadian people. This new model for our social safety net will require changes along the way at a number of levels, from the fiscal arrangements which help to pay for these programs to the ways these programs themselves are delivered.
For 127 years Canadians have enjoyed a system of government that has served us well, two tiers of jurisdiction, federal and provincial, divide powers and responsibilities. What makes Canada great is that we have always been able to work together and compromise for the greater good.
At this juncture of our history we once again find ourselves in need of that co-operation and goodwill. Now is not the time for another protracted turf war between the federal and provincial governments. Canadians will not accept it, nor should we as federal representatives be drawn into jurisdictional squabbles. What the times appear to demand now is a new rationale for the social security system and a willingness to co-operate in implementing this rationale.
I am pleased to note that a number of provinces have taken the lead in exploring new ideas and trying new programs. They are to be commended for their initiative and for their creativity. For example, British Columbia and New Brunswick are experimenting with pilot projects that use financial incentives to get those on welfare back to school or back into the work force.
Ontario is proposing a three tiered approach: a child benefit for all parents on low income, a basic benefit for jobless adults, and a special allowance up to $450 a month for jobless adults in retraining programs.
Newfoundland has proposed replacing unemployment insurance and welfare with a form of guaranteed annual income of at least $9,000 for everyone in the province. The needy and the destitute would receive other monetary housing and health benefits. As for those who receive welfare or unemployment insurance they would no longer be penalized if they take part time, short term or minimum wage jobs. They would no longer lose their housing, health and child care benefits until they could afford to pay for them.
All these examples illustrate a workable common sense approach to the change of Canada's social safety net. By combining the principles of need and merit with incentive, these examples of welfare reform illustrate that social programs can be based on a kind of hard nosed compassion.
The question is familiar to anyone living in Canada. How with limited funds can we support in some dignity those who cannot work, reward those who can for trying and either educate or train the rest? We already have some interesting examples before us. Enterprising welfare reforms have been heard before and then forgotten.
I do not believe Canadians can afford to let that happen again. That is why I am so pleased that the Minister of Human Resources Development has already agreed to study several of these proposals made by some of the provinces.
The changes when they come might happen in the following way. Assuming that the Canadian economy must undergo pronounced structural change to remain competitive the labour force is naturally faced with job retraining, job dislocation and economic uncertainty. A significant job category in the near future may well be that of trainee or student.
Unemployment insurance seems to be the likely candidate to be transformed into a training and upgrading allowance scheme. Such allowances could even begin with students completing high school and beginning occupational training or higher education. These allowances would continue to be available to people in the process of retraining when that becomes necessary.
The possibility even exists of entirely banishing the concept of unemployment. Temporary lay-offs could be used as holiday time while more lengthy lay-offs could be used for sabbatical or for periods of job retraining.
As illustrated by the Newfoundland scheme such allowances might also be used to supplement the incomes of those in part time employment. The beauty of this vibrant as opposed to passive form of guaranteed annual income is that when someone on social assistance finally finds a job they will not be punished with a smaller cheque. They would be given a bigger one. The assistance would taper off until earned income reaches a certain level, and then slowly subside to zero until another level is reached.
The advantages are easy to see. Unemployment insurance and make work spending are redeployed to support the unemployable and also reward the effort of getting work. Conventional, passive welfare spending declines as people find jobs or create their own through self-employment and enough is left over to finance better training programs and education.
The provinces have come up with many new approaches. It is this government's desire to work with the provinces with one simple goal in mind, getting Canada back to work. We want to sit down with our provincial partners and come up with a unified and effective program that works for the Canadian people. By co-operating I believe we can find new solutions. I believe our shared deficit and debt crisis has opened a window of opportunity to try new common sense ideas. They have forced us to recognize that our first task is to get Canadians working again. They have forced us to recognize that what we do now is not working.
The federal government and the provinces of this federation have been given a unique opportunity. Together we can perform a fundamental overhaul of all the social assistance and unemployment insurance programs. Let us not waste this rare opportunity. Let us tap into that reservoir of Canadian ingenuity and
good old-fashioned common sense and work together for the good of all Canadians.
At this time I would like to apologize to my hon. colleague for using the buzzwords.
