NEWS RELEASE  

July 20, 1994     For Immediate Release 

GOVERNMENT POLL FAILED TO ASK MOST IMPORTANT QUESTIONS  

Garry Breitkreuz, MP for Yorkton-Melville, was pleased with the answers to the questions asked in an Angus Reid poll, released yesterday by the Minister of Human Resources Development but was disappointed that the Minister failed to ask the most important questions in his survey of Canadians. 

"These survey results support long established policies of the Reform Party which call for a return of Unemployment Insurance to a true insurance program," said Breitkreuz. "A large percentage of the respondents agreed with the insurance principle that the more employers or employees use Unemployment Insurance, the higher their premiums should be. Implementing this principle would go a long way to making the UI program self-financing," he claimed. 

Here are some of the survey results which Breitkreuz says are most encouraging: 

• 60% of the respondents said that UI benefits should be reduced after a certain number of claims. 
• 67% agreed that employers who regularly lay off their employees should pay higher UI premiums. 
• 53% agreed that employees with frequent periods of unemployment should also have to pay higher premiums. 
• 85% of the respondents agreed that frequent users of UI should be required to take training. 
• 67% thought people should be required to work at community projects while collecting UI. 
• 75% agreed that the government should provide financial assistance to help frequent users of UI to move from areas of high unemployment to parts of the country with better employment prospects. 
• 50% of the respondents agreed that "household income" should be taken into account when deciding eligibility and the level of benefits for UI. 

Breitkreuz continued, "Unfortunately, whoever designed the Angus Reid survey was no visionary. Why were the most important questions never asked? 

• Do taxpayers, workers and employers think the UI program should be compulsory as it is now or voluntary? 
• Do taxpayers, workers and employers think the government should continue to control the UI program or should Unemployment Insurance be administered by the employees and employers who pay the premiums? 
• Would workers rather have a choice about where to invest their UI premiums? Would workers get a better return on their investment than the government run UI program offers them? 
• Should the UI program be turned into a self-financing Crown Corporation administered by the employees and employers who pay the premiums? 
• Should unions and employers be permitted to opt-out of the government run UI program by establishing a privately administered unemployment insurance program for the benefit of their workers? 

"This is a very important debate and the government is presuming that they can collect $20 billion in payroll taxes from workers and employers and spend it any way they want. The government assumes it should control everything. Only 34% of the respondents to the Angus Reid poll trust the federal government to make the changes that are necessary to reform our social programs. With such a low credibility rating, I don't think the federal government should automatically assume that the Canadian people want them to continue to have total control of the unemployment insurance program. If we are going to discuss options make sure Canadians are aware of all the options not just the ones that benefit the bureaucrats and politicians," demanded Breitkreuz. 

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For more information please call: 

Yorkton:- (306) 782-3309 

Ottawa:- (613) 992-4394