Antoine Dubé

[China, February 6th, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, this morning, as a democratic citizen concerned with the respect for human rights and as the Bloc Quebecois spokesperson for the Asia-Pacific, I took part in a press conference organized by the Canada-Tibet Committee in order to support a demand that the Prime Minister of Canada bring to one negotiating table representatives of the Dalai Lama and of the Chinese government.

The Canadian government is well known for its fondness for appearing in the eyes of the international community as a broker of peace and an untiring defender of human rights. In that context, our current special relationship with China offers us a unique opportunity to put our principles into concrete actions.

The Bloc Quebecois does not want to see human rights sacrificed to the economic benefits of the Prime Minister's visit to China. The Tibetans have the right to retain their culture, a culture that is unique to them.

[Employment Insurance Act, February 5th, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, between 1993 and 1997, I sat on the human resources development committee and the secretary of state was performing about the same duties as today.

Since very few changes were made compared to what people requested throughout the consultation process and since the secretary of state is very much aware of the situation, how does she explain the fact that the eligibility rule has not been modified?

The House has to realize that no changes whatsoever were made to the eligibility rule. The changes only affect those who are already eligible to employment insurance benefits. There is nothing in this bill for those who could not previously qualify for employment insurance.

The secretary of state has read the reports prepared by the committee that even travelled to my region. How can she justify and support this bill that does not include any of the suggestions concerning the eligibility issue?

[Employment Insurance Act, February 5th, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, this is the first time I have heard this MP speak of the Gaspé, and I am delighted.

The new member representing the Gaspé, whom we have not yet heard speak, should draw on his energy and his influence to speak in support of the Gaspé.

[Employment Insurance Act, February 5th, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, unfortunately, I think they will follow the pack, toe the party line and remain silent.

I remember that the Liberal candidate in my riding refused to have any debate. It was the same with the other Liberal candidates in the Quebec City region.

Allow me to make a brief comment. In the ridings of the Quebec City region, with the exception of Bellechasse, the candidates tried to convince voters to vote against the Bloc Quebecois to bring the issue of mergers to the Quebec political arena. This is our second week in the House and these members are no longer talking about mergers. They do not ask questions on this issue and they do not make comments.

We are getting used to this pattern. Once the election is over, the Liberals either remain silent or else they toe the party line.

[Employment Insurance Act, February 5th, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, we have the same opinion of what they were saying. During the election campaign, I watched the news like everyone else. When the Prime Minister was campaigning, in your neck of the woods, I believe, he said this about Bill C-44 “We realized that it had not been a good decision; we ought not to have done so”. He was referring to the cuts to employment insurance eligibility.

The hon. member for Bourassa made a personal commitment to making corrections to the employment insurance legislation. Many people understood this to mean corrections that would improve the bill that had been introduced just before the election.

The result as far as concrete measures are concerned, with the exception of a few lines or phrases, is that nothing substantial has been changed. It is as if there had never been an election. It is as if those words had never been spoken.

That is why in the speech I have just given I said that, on occasion, I am beginning to understand why people are fed up with politics. When a person listens to what is said during election campaigns, particularly by the people across the floor, words that are not respected afterward, not taken any notice of, it is as if nothing has happened at all.

I would say, however, that the voters did a good thing by re-electing a number of opposition MPs, particularly the hon. member for Acadie—Bathurst, and all the others I have just named, to act as watchdogs over this government. I would have a word of caution for the hon. member for Chicoutimi—Le Fjord, for whom I still have considerable respect. When a person crosses the floor of this House, before he does so, he needs to be vigilant about maintaining his opinions, his values, the things he wants changed.

[Employment Insurance Act, February 5th, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, I also want to say that I had a lot of respect for the hon. member for Chicoutimi. I use the past tense because I lost some of it when he crossed the floor to sit with the Liberal government at which he had previously aimed what I consider just criticisms.

I remember some of his comments, even the last one about the Liberal government's lack of compassion for our young people at the time. He says that this is a positive initiative. I want to put to him a question dealing only with employment insurance, which was one of the major concerns I expressed in my speech. Would he support, like I would, an amendment to put an end to the two tier employment insurance system, one for the older workers and one for the younger ones?

In my speech, I said that unfortunately our young people were the first ones to be hurt by this system. I believe that returning to a fairer system for everyone would encourage more young workers to stay in their ridings or their regions and to even create their own jobs in some cases. I do not want to go on and on about this, I will limit myself only to that one suggestion.

The hon. member would hence be able to follow the agenda and stay true to the criticisms he made while sitting on this side of the House.

[Employment Insurance Act, February 5th, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, I would greatly appreciate it, should the hon. member across the way repeat this behaviour, if you would ask her to pipe down. I can barely hear my own voice.

Women and young workers are the main ones to bear the brunt of the deep cuts to employment insurance. It is all very well that the government has managed to deal with the deficit but it has affected one category of the population, mainly the poorest and the unemployed.

What do these people do when they cannot receive employment insurance? They are forced onto welfare, a provincial jurisdiction. This program is now subject to the Canada health and social transfer in which the federal government has made substantial cuts. Everything has been dumped onto the provinces.

As for young workers, before the reform 54% of young people aged 20 to 24 were entitled to employment insurance; in 1999 the figure was only 24.9%.

I endorse what the NDP member before me has said. What would people think if this were another type of insurance, whether fire or theft insurance, crop insurance, or some other kind? There are many kinds of insurance. If people knew in advance that they had only one in four chances of receiving any benefits, as the young workers do, would this be any encouragement to say “now I feel I am being treated fairly”? On the contrary, young people are justified in feeling that they are being treated unfairly.

At present, this is the case of the employment insurance system. This is the impression shared by all the people who pay employment insurance premiums, since only 41.9% of all unemployed workers, of all contributors, qualified for benefits in 1999. It is not only women and young people, but mostly young people and women. That is unacceptable. Yet, in its bill, the government did not change anything pertaining to eligibility.

This is my opinion and I know that our critic, the hon. member for Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup—Témiscouata—Les Basques, agrees with me. I would like to take the opportunity to mention the absolutely remarkable work he has done since he was elected. He has been the Bloc Quebecois critic for human resources development since 1997 and he took part with me in consultations within the Standing Committee on Human Resources Development, during the first mandate. He is a formidable and relentless worker. This has led to many results. Many of my relatives live in his riding. I myself am a living example of the young people who leave a so-called remote area. Indeed, I come from Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup—Témiscouata—Les Basques or, more specifically, from Sainte-Rita.

There were not and there still are not many jobs in that area. I must pay tribute to the work of this member and to the work of others such as the remarkable work of the member for Acadie—Bathurst, who, although he is not a member of our party, has his heart in the right place. He has vigorously defended and represented those who have felt the backlash of the cuts to employment insurance. I also want to recognize the work of the member for Québec, who toured her region and all of Quebec in connection with poverty. When we spoke of poor people, she spoke of people who had felt the downside of the employment insurance reform. These members have done a phenomenal job.

I see the member for Sept-Îles, who did terrific work during his campaign in eastern Quebec and on the north shore. These people were re-elected. The member for Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup—Témiscouata—Les Basques increased his majority incredibly. He should be congratulated. I think the members opposite should congratulate him, but they will do nothing. However, they do recognize that he is a defender of the people, the poor, the people who face worry and insecurity daily. Mothers or fathers wonder every week if they will get through, be able to properly feed and clothe their children, and so on. How many people worry, like the MP for Acadie—Bathurst, about the famous gap, the period that is missing in order to get through to the spring and for seasonal work to begin?

Despite the opinion of all the members of the opposition, we have this problem. The members of the Alliance might be the exception, since I have already heard them say—although not today—that their approach to resolving the problem of unemployment is to abolish employment insurance. That way everyone will go hungry and take ridiculous jobs, will move from one province to another and will end up finding work. It is incredible.

It is as if we told the sick that everyone would be in good health if hospitals were eliminated. It is incredible to hear such magical thinking.

I now go back to my point. As the member for Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup—Témiscouata—Les Basques said, we are once again subjected to blackmail.

The Bloc Quebecois would have supported a proposal to include the proposed amendments in a bill. While deploring the fact that this legislation was not changing anything regarding eligibility, we would have supported it, because we have a heart, and we care about our constituents who are going through a rough time. We would have voted in favour of this bill, even though we were hoping for a better program.

Now the government wants to formalize what the Minister of Finance has already been doing for five years, that is to take money from the surplus generated by the employment insurance fund to manage its mismanagement, and to counteract the continued laxness of a government which will just not cut certain expenditures.

That is not the issue, since all the parties have found areas where government expenditures could be reduced. But no. This government makes cuts affecting the poorest in our society, those who should not be affected by cuts. It makes cuts to EI, and tightens up eligibility requirements. This is unbelievable.

I am told the bill's effect would be retroactive to October 1, as the Bloc Quebecois leader pointed out. During the whole period that followed the election, however, the Prime Minister did not convene the House, while he could have done so before Christmas. People would have liked to see these amendments take effect before the holiday season. But no, the government took its time. There was no rush. The election had taken place and the Liberals had just won a majority government. So, the Prime Minister preferred to wait and then say “Yes, we will do this retroactively for you”. But people's rent and other expenses cannot be paid retroactively.

The day after the election I continued to see people in my riding office as though nothing had changed. People asked me “If the government is talking about a retroactive system, will their wonderful parental leave be retroactive as well?” No, it will not. Things are retroactive when it suits the government, because it has said that they will be. I find this government's lack of compassion appalling.

Finally, when he called the election, the Prime Minister had only one thing on his mind: getting elected for a third majority mandate. He was not thinking about the good of the country, about the plight of the poor and the unemployed. He apparently wanted to go down in history as the prime minister who, after Laurier, had the most majority mandates.

Unbelievable, but there it is. How can we complain about the poor voter turnout when there was so little to vote for? While not encouraging this, I can understand it. The election was called for no other reason than opportunism, not out of any desire to tackle the real problems facing a certain segment of the population.

I was re-elected for the third time with a strong majority. Members of the House know that shipbuilding is an issue of great concern to me. It is an issue that is well covered by the media in certain regions but unfortunately not on Parliament Hill. No Hill journalists are interested in the topic.

The shipbuilding sector is a sector that has been hit hard by unemployment. It is a sector that has been affected by the problems of the intensity rule, the rule applied to those who are frequently out of work.

Each year these people have lost 1% of their employment insurance benefits because there were periods of unemployment. This represents millions of dollars in my region that were lost not just by unemployed workers at the Lévis shipyard but also by businesses in my region. When people have less money in their wallet they spend less. This has an effect on the whole community.

[Employment Insurance Act, February 5th, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, to start with, I would like to congratulate you on your appointment as Deputy Chairman of Committees of the Whole House.

As this is my first speech since parliament resumed, I would like to thank voters in the riding of Chutes-de-la-Chaudière who elected me for the third time and for the trust they showed in me. I can assure them that I will do my best to honour their trust. I especially thank those who voted for me. At the same time, as you know, Mr. Speaker, when we are elected, we must work for all our constituents, and this is what I pledge to do.

I am mentioning the election because this bill amending the Employment Insurance Act was introduced in the weeks before the election was called and an election was indeed called. As much as the government tried to blame the Bloc Quebecois for preventing the passing of the bill, it should be pointed out that we never got to vote on the bill.

We opposed it but I want to remind members why we opposed a certain part of the bill. It was because it made official the plundering of the EI fund surplus by the government to reduce the deficit or just show a surplus.

There was no vote and I will point out that the same thing happened with the bill on shipbuilding that I introduced. I was in the same situation. The bill had passed all stages, including second reading and clause by clause study in committee. Then suddenly the Prime Minister decided to call an election three and a half years after the last one. Why? Because he wanted to take advantage of what was favourable to him and his party. A number of bills such as this one died on the order paper. This is the reason the bill had to be reintroduced now.

This is not the topic we are dealing with today but the context in which a bill is introduced must sometimes be recalled.

I want to relate the bill to something that happened during the election. Many, at least in Quebec, deplored the fact that a lot of young people did not exercise their right to vote because they felt abandoned by the government in many ways, including with regard to employment insurance.

I think they are not totally wrong. I talked to some young people who did not vote. First, they had a problem with registration; they were not on the voters' list. Moreover, there was only one office in each riding where they could register.

This feeling was shared by many young people. They told me afterward that they felt ignored, that they felt like they were being treated differently and that they did not get the special attention they needed.

During the election campaign I often heard the Liberals, including the Prime Minister, try to ridicule the leader of the Canadian Alliance for wanting a two tier health care system. That is rather bizarre because, since 1995, we have had a two tier employment insurance system, one for those who have received employment insurance benefits before and one for those who have never received employment insurance benefits.

How is that? Some people have to work 900 hours to qualify, which is more than for others. Obviously I will not get into the number of hours required by region because, as members know, it varies from one region to the next depending on the unemployment rate.

I say that we have a two tier employment insurance system because there is one set of rules for one group and another set of rules for another. Yet the Liberal Party kept criticizing the leader of another party or a member of that party for alleged plans with regard to health, never realizing that there was a contradiction between the words and the actions.

Young workers were the first to be hurt by this two tier system for the new unemployed. Women were also affected. After deciding to stay home for a number of years to raise their children—and that is a choice they made—when they want to get into the labour market, and in some cases find their first job ever, women find themselves in the same situation as young workers who have never worked. The tough part is to work 900 hours to qualify for employment insurance benefits.

Let me digress once again. Lately I have seen the government ad we keep seeing everywhere, the one dealing with parental leave. That issue is not addressed in the bill but it is somewhat related to our debate. The employment insurance program is being used to provide parental leave to everyone. That is the impression we get but it is not so.

The mother or the father who has not worked the required number of hours to qualify for employment insurance cannot benefit from this program, where the leave has gone from six to twelve months as of, I believe, January 1.

What I also find outrageous about this program, which is not, in my mind, a real parental leave program, is that it uses the employment insurance program. The government is trying to look good by saying “This is our program”.

I sat on the Standing Committee on Human Resources Development when the consultations that led to the 1995 reform were carried out. The federal government has not put a single dime into the employment insurance fund since 1991, except to pay for outstanding deficits, which it does not have to do anymore.

Eligibility for the program was so reduced that the government now has a surplus that has reached a total of over $31 billion in five years. That is an enormous sum. It is almost as much as Quebecers provide to the federal government every year from all the various sources.

[Shipbuilding, February 5th, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, the minister perhaps did not have enough time. I repeat my question: Does the minister intend, in the near future, to introduce his own shipbuilding bill?

[Shipbuilding, February 5th, 2001]

Mr. Speaker, in the last session of the last parliament, all parties voted in favour of the shipbuilding bill I introduced. Everyone admits that the Bloc Quebecois bill was the solution. Even the present Minister of Industry, when he was Premier of Newfoundland, agreed.

Will the minister undertake to speedily introduce a bill to give this country a real shipbuilding policy?