Mr. Speaker, we talked about tough times when the Liberals were in government. This is a budget of the present government but it cannot leave the Liberals behind because tonight there will be a coalition between the Liberals and the Conservatives, a new coalition.
The Liberals said that there were tough times and that they had to cut the employment insurance. Would the member for British Columbia Southern Interior agree with me that it is not by cutting the employment insurance that we help the country because the country is made up of people, of workers? Why does the government want to take away the earnings of workers who are trying to feed their families?
The government is proud that only 40% of workers who lose their jobs qualify for employment insurance. How could anybody be proud that a program, which workers pay into for a safety net, is being stolen from them? Is that not what is happening? Even if the government wants to pay the debt, does it pay it only on the backs of the workers, because it is a $55 billion surplus? It was $57 billion but the government took $2 billion and put it in this new agency.