Tories backpeddle on EI rule, say minister speaking in 'generalities'
- Thread starter mentalfloss
- Start date
I'm pretty sure if the truth were known, Gerry, if a guy looked hard enough on the net he could probably find "links" just as assinine as any of the nattering by the idiots on the forum. :lol:
He is actually a conceited prig and, as karrie said on another thread, his condescension is nauseating.Don't bother listening to CDN. He is a lowly peasant.
It would be interesting if there were even one of his one liners in posts aimed at me that was worthy of a response. As it is, he contributes exactly nothing. He just screws up every discussion.
Everyone is entitled to his/her own opinion..........................not that they are all credible. :lol:
That guy has been down the rabbit hole too long, he should come up for some oxygen for the brain.
N.S., PEI premiers voice anxiety over EI reform
The premiers of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island are warning Ottawa that it is wading into very dangerous political waters on EI reform, calling for a public debate on the highly sensitive issue of seasonal workers.
The two premiers say MPs need to take a very close look at what Ottawa is trying to accomplish with the employment insurance changes contained in the 425-page budget bill.
“Unemployment is one of those electric rails in Atlantic Canada that you want to be careful about,” Nova Scotia’s NDP Premier Darrell Dexter said Tuesday.
“It’s worrying in the sense that if they grant their own discretionary powers to be able to make those changes without them coming forward for scrutiny of Parliament, then that would be obviously very concerning.”
Robert Ghiz, the Premier of PEI, said he agrees with Ottawa that future labour shortages need to be addressed, but regional circumstances must be considered.
“The only thing I am asking is that they realize that in January in Prince Edward Island we are not growing potatoes and we’re not catching lobsters, which are two of our largest industries,” he said.
The budget bill removes from the Employment Insurance Act existing definitions of work that EI recipients can turn down as “not suitable,” either because it is not in their field, pays less or does not offer good working conditions.
New rules will come later through regulation, which means that they can be approved by cabinet alone without parliamentary approval once the budget bill becomes law.
Human Resources Minister Diane Finley told the House of Commons Tuesday that new rules would be focused on connecting unemployed workers with jobs in their area and “in their range of skills.”
During a Senate committee hearing Tuesday, officials from Ms. Finley’s department confirmed that the budget bill will also replace a nationwide system of three-person EI appeal boards, called Boards of Referees, with a new Social Security Tribunal of 74 full-time members, of which 39 will handle EI cases.
Sue Foster, a federal director-general, said the change would save $25-million, largely because the government would no longer be paying about 1,000 part-time staff on appeal boards dealing with EI, the Canada Pension Plan, Old Age Security and disability benefits.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his ministers got an earful from opposition MPs Tuesday in the house of Commons a day after Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said Ottawa plans to “broaden” the definition of the type of work Canadians will have to accept if they’re job hunting while on EI.
Mr. Flaherty also said, “There is no bad job. The only bad job is not having a job.”
Yet federal rules and decades of case law do currently say there is such a thing as a bad job when it comes to EI. A long history of rulings by EI appeal boards have outlined situations where EI claimants can refuse an available job if it does not offer good working conditions.
Based on that case law, the Service Canada website notes that a job could be considered not suitable if the employer’s record includes a high turnover, numerous grievances filed, lower pay than other employers, dilapidated premises or a generally dissatisfied work force.
David Campbell, a Moncton-based economic development consultant, said changes to EI should be studied by a royal commission, given the complications. He said a “culture shift” is needed to break the cycle in some rural areas where workers will quit once they are eligible for EI.
“We have to encourage more year-round work,” he said.
Critics fear local knowledge about employers and the local job market will be lost if the regional EI appeal boards are scrapped. The current three-person EI panels include a chair, a worker’s representative and an employer’s representative. Under the new system, only one person appointed by the government will hear appeals from people who have been denied EI.
Ken Georgetti, the president of the Canadian Labour Congress, said provinces should be concerned that Ottawa will deny more EI claims, which could mean more demand for provincial social services. Mr. Georgetti said the existing EI panels tended to overturn government rulings that denied EI benefits.
“That’s probably why they want to get rid of it,” he said.
N.S., PEI premiers voice anxiety over EI reform - The Globe and Mail
The premiers of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island are warning Ottawa that it is wading into very dangerous political waters on EI reform, calling for a public debate on the highly sensitive issue of seasonal workers.
The two premiers say MPs need to take a very close look at what Ottawa is trying to accomplish with the employment insurance changes contained in the 425-page budget bill.
“Unemployment is one of those electric rails in Atlantic Canada that you want to be careful about,” Nova Scotia’s NDP Premier Darrell Dexter said Tuesday.
“It’s worrying in the sense that if they grant their own discretionary powers to be able to make those changes without them coming forward for scrutiny of Parliament, then that would be obviously very concerning.”
Robert Ghiz, the Premier of PEI, said he agrees with Ottawa that future labour shortages need to be addressed, but regional circumstances must be considered.
“The only thing I am asking is that they realize that in January in Prince Edward Island we are not growing potatoes and we’re not catching lobsters, which are two of our largest industries,” he said.
The budget bill removes from the Employment Insurance Act existing definitions of work that EI recipients can turn down as “not suitable,” either because it is not in their field, pays less or does not offer good working conditions.
New rules will come later through regulation, which means that they can be approved by cabinet alone without parliamentary approval once the budget bill becomes law.
Human Resources Minister Diane Finley told the House of Commons Tuesday that new rules would be focused on connecting unemployed workers with jobs in their area and “in their range of skills.”
During a Senate committee hearing Tuesday, officials from Ms. Finley’s department confirmed that the budget bill will also replace a nationwide system of three-person EI appeal boards, called Boards of Referees, with a new Social Security Tribunal of 74 full-time members, of which 39 will handle EI cases.
Sue Foster, a federal director-general, said the change would save $25-million, largely because the government would no longer be paying about 1,000 part-time staff on appeal boards dealing with EI, the Canada Pension Plan, Old Age Security and disability benefits.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his ministers got an earful from opposition MPs Tuesday in the house of Commons a day after Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said Ottawa plans to “broaden” the definition of the type of work Canadians will have to accept if they’re job hunting while on EI.
Mr. Flaherty also said, “There is no bad job. The only bad job is not having a job.”
Yet federal rules and decades of case law do currently say there is such a thing as a bad job when it comes to EI. A long history of rulings by EI appeal boards have outlined situations where EI claimants can refuse an available job if it does not offer good working conditions.
Based on that case law, the Service Canada website notes that a job could be considered not suitable if the employer’s record includes a high turnover, numerous grievances filed, lower pay than other employers, dilapidated premises or a generally dissatisfied work force.
David Campbell, a Moncton-based economic development consultant, said changes to EI should be studied by a royal commission, given the complications. He said a “culture shift” is needed to break the cycle in some rural areas where workers will quit once they are eligible for EI.
“We have to encourage more year-round work,” he said.
Critics fear local knowledge about employers and the local job market will be lost if the regional EI appeal boards are scrapped. The current three-person EI panels include a chair, a worker’s representative and an employer’s representative. Under the new system, only one person appointed by the government will hear appeals from people who have been denied EI.
Ken Georgetti, the president of the Canadian Labour Congress, said provinces should be concerned that Ottawa will deny more EI claims, which could mean more demand for provincial social services. Mr. Georgetti said the existing EI panels tended to overturn government rulings that denied EI benefits.
“That’s probably why they want to get rid of it,” he said.
N.S., PEI premiers voice anxiety over EI reform - The Globe and Mail
Workers, business groups give mixed reviews to Ottawa's Employment Insurance crackdown
On his third day in Alberta hunting for work as an electrical apprentice, Mitchell Gallant took to downtown Fort McMurray to size up employment opportunities stemming from the hot oilsands industry.
The 22-year-old Gallant from the tiny coastal community of Port-au-Port in western Newfoundland is advertising his skills online and plans to connect with graduates of his college electrical program as part of his search.
Half the class has already moved to Alberta, he said Thursday.
Willing to relocate across the country, Gallant is the ideal type of unemployed worker, according to the federal government's new Employment Insurance program outlined Thursday in the name of matching unemployed workers with Canada's labour needs.
But he opposes some of the sweeping changes Ottawa promised to roll out, namely conditions that force all EI beneficiaries to accept jobs for less money than their previous work - and for those collecting benefits the longest, positions in unrelated occupations.
"I did my trade to work in my trade," Gallant said in a phone interview."It would be an issue for anybody.
"If you've been working at something for 30 years, how can someone go and tell you that you have to take another job, something you're unfamiliar with?"
Alberta business groups embraced the federal government's changes to EI, announced by Human Resources Minister Diane Finley, suggesting tougher conditions for receiving benefits will encourage skilled unemployed people to move west and help relieve a labour crunch otherwise being addressed by an influx of temporary foreign workers.
However, labour groups panned the changes across the country, suggesting the Harper government is pursuing a low-wage strategy that gives the corporate world the upper hand.
Opposition critics said the federal Conservatives are scapegoating victims of tough economic times, while political leaders from the most EI-dependent provinces in Atlantic Canada said the Tories are marginalizing seasonal workers.
In Ottawa, Finley said the intent of the changes is to get people off EI and into jobs for which they are qualified, and through linking out-of-work Canadians with the needs of employers, minimize the country's reliance on labour from abroad.
"Bringing in temporary foreign workers is not acceptable, especially when we have Canadians willing to work," Finley said at a news conference. "We want to help Canadians who want to work, get back to work."
Following up from a March 2012 budget commitment to clarify who would continue to receive EI, the federal Tories outlined changes expected to go into effect early next year.
There will be categories of unemployed with a sliding scale of expectations for jobs they must accept, depending on how often they have collected benefits in the past and the length they are currently on EI.
If they don't meet the new requirements, they face getting cut off benefits or not qualifying in the first place.
The government said it will aid in the job search by e-mailing them two "job alerts" a day, informing them of openings, and said that in most circumstances, Canadians will need to accept an available job within an hour's commute - longer in some places, such as big cities.
Fewer Albertans dip into EI compared with much of the country, and the province is among the hungriest for labour.
Richard Truscott, Alberta director for the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, said the new EI rules could expand the labour pool for Alberta small businesses, which he said are facing a hiring squeeze approaching the height of the last economic boom.
"More than half of the small businesses we survey say that the shortage of skilled labour is their No. 1 operating constraint," Truscott said. "Clearly Alberta is suffering through one of the worst labour shortages it's ever seen."
Truscott called the current EI system a "disincentive" to employment that the government is "rightfully trying to address."
Cheryl Knight, chief executive of the Petroleum Human Resources Council of Canada, said while the federal government isn't forcing workers to move across the country - as some had previously suggested it would - she believes Ottawa's new job-alert system might spur some movement of unemployed workers to fill vacancies in Alberta.
When "you see some of the same occupations that we're just so short (on) being EI recipients in other parts of the country, there's got to be some of those people that are willing to move for great employment," Knight said. "Industry is in a position of chronic labour shortages."
Gil McGowan, president of the Alberta Federation of Labour, said the federal government is "putting the screws to unemployed workers" by forcing them to accept lower-paying jobs.
"It's also bad news for the broader economy because it will mean workers will be forced to accept the first crappy job that comes along, as opposed to waiting for a job that's a better fit for their experience and skills," he said.
Statistics Canada reported Thursday that regular EI recipients in Alberta fell to 26,900 in March, down 12,060 people or 31 per cent from a year earlier.
Across the country, 549,000 people were getting regular EI benefits in March, a figure little changed from the previous month.
The April unemployment rate was 7.3 per cent in Canada. Employment in Alberta increased by 11,000 in April, and the unemployment rate declined 0.4 percentage points to 4.9 per cent.
New Employment Insurance categories and rules
- Long-tenured workers, mostly employed over the past seven to 10 years, can refuse a job outside their usual occupation that doesn't pay at least 90 per cent of their previous hourly wage. But only for so long. After 18 weeks on benefits, they must lower their sights and accept any offer in a "similar occupation" within their industry that pays at least 80 per cent of their previous scale.
- Frequent EI claimants, who have been on the system at least three times for a total of 60 weeks over the past five years, will be expected to take a similar job that pays at least 80 per cent of their previous wage rate from the beginning. After six weeks, claimants will have to take any job for which they are qualified at 70 per cent of the previous pay.
- "Occasional claimants" must accept work paying at least 90 per cent of their previous scale in the first six weeks, 80 per cent in the next 12 weeks and 70 per cent after 18 weeks on benefits. This in-between category - representing about 58 per cent of claimants - is made up of those who do not fit within the work history of the previous two and can include young and new workers with up to six years of steady employment who have never collected EI.
Workers, business groups give mixed reviews to Ottawa's Employment Insurance crackdown
The 22-year-old Gallant from the tiny coastal community of Port-au-Port in western Newfoundland is advertising his skills online and plans to connect with graduates of his college electrical program as part of his search.
Half the class has already moved to Alberta, he said Thursday.
Willing to relocate across the country, Gallant is the ideal type of unemployed worker, according to the federal government's new Employment Insurance program outlined Thursday in the name of matching unemployed workers with Canada's labour needs.
But he opposes some of the sweeping changes Ottawa promised to roll out, namely conditions that force all EI beneficiaries to accept jobs for less money than their previous work - and for those collecting benefits the longest, positions in unrelated occupations.
"I did my trade to work in my trade," Gallant said in a phone interview."It would be an issue for anybody.
"If you've been working at something for 30 years, how can someone go and tell you that you have to take another job, something you're unfamiliar with?"
Alberta business groups embraced the federal government's changes to EI, announced by Human Resources Minister Diane Finley, suggesting tougher conditions for receiving benefits will encourage skilled unemployed people to move west and help relieve a labour crunch otherwise being addressed by an influx of temporary foreign workers.
However, labour groups panned the changes across the country, suggesting the Harper government is pursuing a low-wage strategy that gives the corporate world the upper hand.
Opposition critics said the federal Conservatives are scapegoating victims of tough economic times, while political leaders from the most EI-dependent provinces in Atlantic Canada said the Tories are marginalizing seasonal workers.
In Ottawa, Finley said the intent of the changes is to get people off EI and into jobs for which they are qualified, and through linking out-of-work Canadians with the needs of employers, minimize the country's reliance on labour from abroad.
"Bringing in temporary foreign workers is not acceptable, especially when we have Canadians willing to work," Finley said at a news conference. "We want to help Canadians who want to work, get back to work."
Following up from a March 2012 budget commitment to clarify who would continue to receive EI, the federal Tories outlined changes expected to go into effect early next year.
There will be categories of unemployed with a sliding scale of expectations for jobs they must accept, depending on how often they have collected benefits in the past and the length they are currently on EI.
If they don't meet the new requirements, they face getting cut off benefits or not qualifying in the first place.
The government said it will aid in the job search by e-mailing them two "job alerts" a day, informing them of openings, and said that in most circumstances, Canadians will need to accept an available job within an hour's commute - longer in some places, such as big cities.
Fewer Albertans dip into EI compared with much of the country, and the province is among the hungriest for labour.
Richard Truscott, Alberta director for the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, said the new EI rules could expand the labour pool for Alberta small businesses, which he said are facing a hiring squeeze approaching the height of the last economic boom.
"More than half of the small businesses we survey say that the shortage of skilled labour is their No. 1 operating constraint," Truscott said. "Clearly Alberta is suffering through one of the worst labour shortages it's ever seen."
Truscott called the current EI system a "disincentive" to employment that the government is "rightfully trying to address."
Cheryl Knight, chief executive of the Petroleum Human Resources Council of Canada, said while the federal government isn't forcing workers to move across the country - as some had previously suggested it would - she believes Ottawa's new job-alert system might spur some movement of unemployed workers to fill vacancies in Alberta.
When "you see some of the same occupations that we're just so short (on) being EI recipients in other parts of the country, there's got to be some of those people that are willing to move for great employment," Knight said. "Industry is in a position of chronic labour shortages."
Gil McGowan, president of the Alberta Federation of Labour, said the federal government is "putting the screws to unemployed workers" by forcing them to accept lower-paying jobs.
"It's also bad news for the broader economy because it will mean workers will be forced to accept the first crappy job that comes along, as opposed to waiting for a job that's a better fit for their experience and skills," he said.
Statistics Canada reported Thursday that regular EI recipients in Alberta fell to 26,900 in March, down 12,060 people or 31 per cent from a year earlier.
Across the country, 549,000 people were getting regular EI benefits in March, a figure little changed from the previous month.
The April unemployment rate was 7.3 per cent in Canada. Employment in Alberta increased by 11,000 in April, and the unemployment rate declined 0.4 percentage points to 4.9 per cent.
New Employment Insurance categories and rules
- Long-tenured workers, mostly employed over the past seven to 10 years, can refuse a job outside their usual occupation that doesn't pay at least 90 per cent of their previous hourly wage. But only for so long. After 18 weeks on benefits, they must lower their sights and accept any offer in a "similar occupation" within their industry that pays at least 80 per cent of their previous scale.
- Frequent EI claimants, who have been on the system at least three times for a total of 60 weeks over the past five years, will be expected to take a similar job that pays at least 80 per cent of their previous wage rate from the beginning. After six weeks, claimants will have to take any job for which they are qualified at 70 per cent of the previous pay.
- "Occasional claimants" must accept work paying at least 90 per cent of their previous scale in the first six weeks, 80 per cent in the next 12 weeks and 70 per cent after 18 weeks on benefits. This in-between category - representing about 58 per cent of claimants - is made up of those who do not fit within the work history of the previous two and can include young and new workers with up to six years of steady employment who have never collected EI.
Workers, business groups give mixed reviews to Ottawa's Employment Insurance crackdown
Bottom line, Until a person looking for work can find a job in his/her own field they should take a job they are capable of performing and within reasonable commuting distance and save the pogey for the ones who desperately need it.
The bottom line is that this is a complex issue that is fair in some ways, and harmful in others (see Maritimes).
Like the 75% of Toronto's unemployed who do not qualify for EI because of earlier changes to throw the unemployed on to the Provincial welfare rolls.
There are no jobs for them either.
These EI changes are just one more attack on the people by the Harper regime. One more downloading to the Provinces since they will now be forced to cover the gaps with welfare programmes.
True, but they are both limited when it comes to reasoning, critical thought, comprehension, sincerity and honesty.
Care to back that up with a link?
Or shall I just chalk that one up as another one of your lies.
And yet, popular opinion is, you contribute nothing, are completely dishonest, and incapable of a simple discussion.
And since you've cried for democracy, more than once. Popular opinion should actually matter to you.
What discussion would that be? You aren't capable of having one.
When you say harmful, do you mean that as in it should be done? Or just the generalized, it's gunna hurt the Martimers?
Can you at least back that up with a smidgen of fact?
BS. There are a thousand of jobs in the GTA on the Job Bank web site alone...
Job Bank - Results