This bill is from the 40th Parliament, 2nd session, which ended in December 2009.
Diane Finley Conservative
This bill has received Royal Assent and is now law.
This is from the published bill. The Library of Parliament has also written a full legislative summary of the bill.
This enactment amends the Employment Insurance Act and other Acts by establishing a scheme to provide for the payment of special benefits to self-employed persons who are not currently entitled to receive them.
All sorts of information on this bill is available at LEGISinfo, an excellent resource from Parliament. You can also read the full text of the bill.
Bill numbers are reused for different bills each new session. Perhaps you were looking for one of these other C-56s:
Fairness for the Self-Employed ActGovernment Orders
The Acting Speaker Denise Savoie
Order. As there are many members standing up, I would like to give more time for questions.
Thierry St-Cyr Bloc Jeanne-Le Ber, QC
Madam Speaker, I listened carefully to my NDP colleague's speech. The same argument was repeated over and over, namely that it is no big deal if Quebec workers are cheated, ripped off, pay premiums that are three times those of other workers because it is not a mandatory program. To avoid being cheated, all they have to do is not opt in.
Let us suppose that employment insurance premiums in the Atlantic provinces were tripled but that it was no longer mandatory to pay into the plan. Would my colleague vote for such a measure?
Jim Maloway NDP Elmwood—Transcona, MB
Madam Speaker, the point here is that it is a voluntary program. It is as simple as that.
Across Canada, if there is no uptake in this program, the Conservatives are going to have an embarrassment on their hands. They are going to have to explain why nobody took up the program.
If they get selected against and the program loses millions of dollars, we will be holding them accountable, asking what kind of an incompetent government could have conceived of a program that came up with so many losses in the first year or the second year of the program.
That is why at this point we have to, at a certain point, accept the figures that we are given. We are taking the government's figures but we are just saying that it stands to reason that unless there are huge numbers joining up, we are going to be looking at losses, and we are going to have to be looking at making the plan—
Fairness for the Self-Employed ActGovernment Orders
The Acting Speaker Denise Savoie
Order. Questions and comments, the hon. member for Mississauga South.
Paul Szabo Liberal Mississauga South, ON
Madam Speaker, I think the member needs to go back and look at what the bill does. He is concerned about whether it is going to be self-sustaining. He says that when people think they are going to be ready to use it, they are going to just opt-in and get the benefit. However, the bill does say that one has to be in for a full year beyond one even qualifies for any benefit. I do not know. Maybe he has to read the bill again.
The issue here has nothing to do with whether it is voluntary or not. It is all going to be part of the new EI commission. All premiums go into the pool and all benefits come out. That is the way it is. One cannot say whether it is voluntary or whatever that it is going to matter. The issue here, which has been raised by a number of members, is whether or not fairness and equity have been achieved in terms of the prescribed premiums.
It appears based on what exists now and what is proposed. The differential has gone askew. It is out of line and that is the issue. I would ask the member to please ensure he understands that it is voluntary, but that one cannot just opt-in when one gets sick.
Jim Maloway NDP Elmwood—Transcona, MB
Madam Speaker, the member should listen to his own critic. She was the one who was bringing up these questions last week. She had gone to committee and she had talked to the actuary. The actuary was bringing up these questions. She was saying that this was a little bit confusing to her, but she obviously should have received advice from the member for Mississauga South. He would have straightened her out on this issue.
The fact of the matter is that this is the Liberal Party that stole $56 billion from the EI program, put it into general revenues—
Fairness for the Self-Employed ActGovernment Orders
The Acting Speaker Denise Savoie
Order. I would like to ask the hon. member to withdraw the word “stole”. It is unparliamentary.
Jim Maloway NDP Elmwood—Transcona, MB
Madam Speaker, I was not sure what the word was, but my colleague from Edmonton said “transferred”.
Fairness for the Self-Employed ActGovernment Orders
The Acting Speaker Denise Savoie
Questions and comments. The hon. member for Vancouver East. A quick question.
Libby Davies NDP Vancouver East, BC
Madam Speaker, I think the member for Elmwood—Transcona made the point very well that these EI changes are so long overdue. I know New Democrats have called for years for these changes to be brought about to help self-employed people with employment insurance.
It strikes me that this is a much bigger issue in terms of social programs in general. I wonder if the member would comment on the fact that the NDP has been the champion of trying to make sure that these programs are actually there for Canadians. Whether it is EI, child care, social housing or our health care system, we are so far behind on everything.
Jim Maloway NDP Elmwood—Transcona, MB
Madam Speaker, that is an excellent question. We had a Liberal government in power for a 13-year period that never came up with a solution like this. The numbers of self-employed people were growing at huge rates. It is funny that, at the end of the day, it took a Conservative minority government and an NDP opposition to put this together. Maybe that is why the Liberal Party is so sour at this time of year over an issue like this.
Fairness for the Self-Employed ActGovernment Orders
The Acting Speaker Denise Savoie
Question and comments. The hon. member for Peterborough. A very quick question because there is one minute left, so 30 seconds.
Fairness for the Self-Employed ActGovernment Orders
December 4th, 2009 / 12:55 p.m.
Peterborough Ontario
Conservative
Dean Del Mastro ConservativeParliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Canadian Heritage
Madam Speaker, the member for Mississauga South raises an awful lot of cautions and concerns. He says that he has been here 16 plus years and that he would not want to rush this kind of legislation. He says we need to really consider these things and give them a lot of thought. How much longer than 16 plus years does he think we should consider legislation like that? I would like to know.
Fairness for the Self-Employed ActGovernment Orders
Jim Maloway NDP Elmwood—Transcona, MB
Madam Speaker, as our House leader has said, this legislation is long overdue. It is time we got with it and brought it in as soon as possible. Let us get it through the Senate. Let us hope that the Liberals do not tinker with it over there. Let us get it into law so that people can start realizing the benefits of our hard work here.