Jobless rate shows EI reform needed
Posted on February 8, 2009 in Debates, Social Security Debates
—
TheStar.com – Opinion/editorial – Jobless rate shows EI reform needed
February 07, 2009
With the loss of 129,000 jobs across Canada in January – a record for a single month – the spotlight has returned to the federal stimulus package and whether it goes far enough to address the current crisis.
The $35 billion package, released as part of the federal budget on Jan. 27, contains some funding to help the jobless by enhancing skills training and extending Employment Insurance benefits for an extra five weeks.
Unfortunately, however, a majority of unemployed Canadians are not eligible for Employment Insurance, often because they work on contract or part-time or in seasonal jobs that don’t last long enough for them to qualify.
The problem is particularly acute in Ontario, where only three in 10 unemployed persons qualify for Employment Insurance.
This discrepancy may have been tolerable when the Ontario economy was booming and the unemployed could easily find work. But Ontario is now the epicentre of the economic earthquake. Most of the jobs lost across the country last month were in Ontario, which saw its unemployment rate jump to 8 per cent as a result. That is higher than the national average (7.2 per cent) and higher even than its historically weaker neighbour, Quebec (7.7 per cent). Now only the Atlantic provinces have higher unemployment rates than Ontario, but the gap is narrowing.
The Ontario government, labour leaders and the former coalition of opposition parties in Ottawa had all been calling for an easing of eligibility requirements for Employment Insurance in the Jan. 27 budget. They were disappointed it was not included in the stimulus package, although the government did find money for such gimmicky items as the $1,350 tax credit for home renovations.
The calls for change in Employment Insurance rules were renewed yesterday by the opposition in the House of Commons. They were met with bafflegab from Human Resources Minister Diane Finley.
But in a newspaper interview a few days earlier, Finley revealed her true feelings. “Our goal is to help people get back to work, and get back to work quickly in jobs that will last,” she said. “We do not want to make it lucrative for them to stay home and get paid for it, not when we have significant skills shortages in many parts of the country.”
The problem with this sort of Darwinian thinking is that the supply of work is not enough to meet the demand for jobs, as yesterday’s unemployment figures show. Making it easier to qualify for Employment Insurance would help many more of the unemployed bridge the recession until the work returns.
Finance Minister Jim Flaherty raised hopes of a shift in this direction on Thursday when he said the government was “open” to changes in its stimulus package. But Prime Minister Stephen Harper dashed those hopes yesterday. “We will not be blown off track very time there is some bad news,” he said.
The alternative to fixing Employment Insurance is to drive the jobless onto the welfare rolls (the responsibility of provinces and municipalities) or to force them to plunder their assets such as homes and retirement savings. Neither option is desirable.
This entry was posted on Sunday, February 8th, 2009 at 11:31 am and is filed under Debates, Social Security Debates. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
374 Responses to “Jobless rate shows EI reform needed”
« Older Comments | Newer Comments »
Recent Comments
Of course, what a great site and informative posts, I will add backlink – bookmark this site? Regards, Reader
You are good writer. Thank you.
This is a great blog. Thank you for the very informative post.
Its wonderful as your other blog posts : D, regards for putting up.
I wrote down your blog in my bookmark. I hope that it somehow did not fall and continues to be a great place for reading texts.
I imagine so. Very good stuff, I agree totally.
I believe this web site has some really wonderful info for everyone : D.
Just stumble upon your blog from from time to time. nice article
These kind of posts are always inspiring and I prefer to read quality content so I happy to find many good point here in the post. writing is simply wonderful! thank you for the post
With internet full of dupe articles it is nice to find original content like yours thank you so very much.
I do not even know how I ended up here, but I thought this post was good. I do not know who you are but certainly you are going to a famous blogger if you are not already 😉 Cheers!
Great blog here! Additionally your website rather a lot up very fast! What host are you the usage of? Can I get your associate link for your host? I desire my website loaded up as fast as yours lol
This has to be one of my favorite posts! And on top of thats its also very helpful topic for newbies. thank a lot for the information!
You are good writer. Thank you.
A thoughtful insight and ideas I will use on my blog. You’ve obviously spent some time on this. Congratulations
Hi there, just became aware of your blog through Google, and found that it’s truly informative. It’s important to cover these trends.
have already been reading ur blog for a couple of days. really enjoy what you posted. btw i will be doing a report about this topic. do you happen to know any great websites or forums that I can find out more? thanks a lot.
Easily, the post is really the greatest on this laudable topic. I concur with your conclusions and will thirstily look forward to your future updates. Saying thank will not just be sufficient, for the wonderful c lucidity in your writing. I will instantly grab your rss feed to stay privy of any updates. Solid work and much success in your business enterprise!
you may have an ideal blog here! would you prefer to make some invite posts on my blog?
whoah this weblog is wonderful i like reading your articles. Keep up the good paintings! You already know, many people are looking around for this information, you can help them greatly.