The federal government is stealing money from the country's employment insurance fund that should rightfully belong to Canadian workers, federal NDP Leader Jack Layton said today.
Successive Liberal and Conservative governments used $54 billion from the fund to help pay down the national debt, he said in a speech to the Canadian Labour Congress.
A clause in the budget implementation bill, currently before the finance committee, states future governments won't have to repay the money, Layton said.
Liberal and Conservative committee members voted to debate the clause for just five minutes, he added.
EI was created to help unemployed workers, but current and previous governments have treated the fund like free money, Layton said.
"This is $54 billion that belonged, and still does belong to, the working people of Canada," he said before hundreds of union representatives. "It was contributed by them and for them and it is being stolen.
"It is the biggest theft in Canadian history."
The NDP is doing everything it can to delay the bill's passing, Layton said.
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