Paul Martin

[Employment Insurance, May 27th, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, the hon. member is not going to create any employment by working himself up into a state.

Since we assumed power, there have been 1.2 million new jobs, 453,000 new jobs in the last year—

[Employment Insurance, May 27th, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, is it immoral to fund the transitional job creation fund? Is it immoral to put money into health and education? Is it immoral to help young people, those who need work, single mothers? If that is the Bloc Quebecois' idea of morality, it is not one shared by Quebeckers nor Canadians.

[Employment Insurance, May 27th, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, the leader of the Bloc Quebecois says he wants to create jobs.

Alain Dubuc had this to say in this morning's edition of La Presse: “Politics is killing the economy in Quebec. We will not succeed in lowering the unemployment rate—as long as we continue to bleed ourselves dry over this political debate, which is getting us nowhere”.

If jobs are what is wanted, then the threat of a referendum has got to go.

[Employment Insurance, May 27th, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, first of all, the reserve in the employment insurance fund was used for the transitional job fund, to create jobs. Is the leader of the Bloc Quebecois against that?

The government's ledgers show that we have eliminated 400,000 taxpayers. Is that not what he would like to see?

We have lowered taxes for 83% of Canadians. Is that not what he would like to see? We have increased transfers to the provinces by $7 billion over a five-year period. Is all this not to his liking?

[Employment Insurance, May 27th, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, since we have taken office the unemployment insurance premiums have gone down from where they were at $3.30 to $2.07. That is $4.2 billion. That is not nickels and dimes.

The issue is if the hon. member would reduce the unemployment insurance premiums more, would he have increased taxes? Would he not have eliminated the deficit, or would he have done what most of his party would do and that is eviscerate the health care and the education systems of the country?

[Employment Insurance, May 27th, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, over the course of the last year the government has reduced the employment insurance premiums from $2.90 to $2.70, one of the largest reductions in history.

At the same time we have reduced income taxes for 83% of Canadians and we have put $1.5 billion into the Canadian health and social transfer, all at the same time eliminating the deficit.

Now the question is if the hon. member would decrease unemployment insurance premiums more, which of those other options would he not have chosen?

[Division No. 172, May 25th, 1998]

moved that the bill be concurred in.

[The Economy, May 25th, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, in situations of economic crisis such as occurred in Indonesia and other Asian countries the IMF must move very quickly in order to recreate confidence in capital markets.

The hon. member is very justified in pointing out that the real cost is borne by individual populations, by women and by children who are forced to drop out of school. As a result of that Canada took a very strong position at the APEC meeting that the World Bank must move in parallel with the IMF in order to directly alleviate the suffering that is being felt.

I am glad to say that the president of the World Bank was there. He also spoke to the same position. The vast majority of finance ministers supported it. I take the hon. member's question as support from this House for that position.

[Employment Insurance, May 25th, 1998]

Yes, we did. I am very pleased to say that there is now a surplus, a reserve in the employment insurance fund. This is our guarantee against an increase in premiums.

[Employment Insurance, May 25th, 1998]

Mr. Speaker, when we took office, there was a $6 billion deficit in the employment insurance fund. We had to eliminate this deficit and that is what we did.