Finance committee  Exactly, because that is the purpose of the EI fund. The other point we are making is that the government has other tools to support economic development. In that respect, labour-sponsored funds come to mind. The last or second-last budget called for the corresponding tax credi

Finance committee  Quebec has regions where the reforms were felt very deeply, including all of eastern Quebec, not to mention the Maritimes. I am not as familiar with the situation in the Maritimes, but I do know that, because of the reforms, many seasonal workers were forced to accept lower payin

Finance committee  Precisely.

Finance committee  They have had a negative impact not just on workers' ability to access benefits, but also on Quebec's regions. When people aren't able to access EI benefits, that is money that is lost by the regions. The Gaspé region comes to mind; it is hurting owing to extremely high unemploym

Finance committee  As we see it, any surplus in the EI fund should be used to enhance the program. I am not aware of any employment insurance system in the world where only 40% of contributors are able to access benefits when they need them. That is the first thing. The other thing is that the leve

Finance committee  Thank you kindly, Mr. Chair. The Confédération des syndicats nationaux , or CSN for short, would like to thank the Standing Committee on Finance for the opportunity to share its position as part of the pre-budget consultations for the 2015 budget. The CSN is a trade union feder

Finance committee  First off, it is important to keep in mind that as a result of successive EI reforms, today, less than half of all unemployed workers are entitled to receive employment insurance. In addition to those reforms, the labour market has changed. You mentioned atypical workers and the

Finance committee  In Quebec, 40% of people have a private pension plan. The system is built on public plans, employer or private pension plans and personal savings. In that sense, the labour fund is an excellent vehicle for personal savings. Now if we do not increase contributions to public pensi

Finance committee  Unions are non-profit organizations, so they do not pay taxes. They collect money that comes back to members in the form of services. Unions do not make profits. So there is no reason for them to pay taxes.

Finance committee  Let's not forget that in late 2008, Canada had to have a political crisis before the government decided to put forward an economic stimulus plan, which Canadians and every opposition party had been calling for. We cannot wait for a recession to hit before taking action. There a

Finance committee  That may have been the case, but that's not what we have seen. Tax cuts have not resulted in increased employment. However, I do want to clarify one thing: we are not against targeted measures that would actually encourage job creation. Research and development has been discussed

Finance committee  We don't think that's the right way to do things. We actually criticized the cutting of corporate taxes from 16.5% to 15% as of 2012, while the country is in a budget deficit. In addition, as we mentioned in our brief, tax cuts are being made while federal public service jobs ar

Finance committee  I would like to go back to what the STM representative said. In Montreal and across Quebec, there are significant shortcomings in this regard. When investments are made in public transit, jobs are created at the same time. For instance, in La Pocatière, Bombardier created jobs th

Finance committee  Mr. Chair, I would like to thank the Standing Committee on Finance for its invitation to the CSN. We are pleased to be here to share our point of view. The Confédération des syndicats nationaux is a trade union organization composed of 2,100 unions representing over 300,000 memb

Finance committee  In a society, the main two factors contributing to increased productivity are the quality and renewal of equipment. I don't think it would be difficult to assist businesses in this regard, if the idea was to increase work productivity. I mentioned that earlier. We would like meas