What A Way To Start The New Year!

Start With Equity Across All Provinces...

...is an unemployed person in BC less hungry than an unemployed person in Newfoundland?

FP Comment: Reform EI now

National Post  August 10, 2010 – 9:07 pm

 

Postmedia News

Job seekers in Edmonton. Increased EI 
premiums would be another burden 
on workers.

Looming hikes to EI premiums will be 
political ­dynamite. Instead, Ottawa should
change the program

By Jack M. Mintz

The real test for the federal Conservatives this coming fall will not be the “voluntary long form census” but a topic far more important to most people: Whether the government can deliver on its promise to restrain taxes. At play are payroll taxes that are slated to rise in the coming years.
With higher unemployment benefits as a result of the Great Recession, EI premiums would normally have been raised to cover program costs. However, as jobs disappeared in the late fall of 2008, killing jobs with higher payroll taxes simply was not in the cards. The government held the line on premiums but, as the economy slowly recovers, payroll taxes will surely rise in the next few years.
On top of this, Jim Flaherty, Minister of Finance, has committed to “modestly” increase payroll taxes on a fully funded basis to provide more retirement support for employees. CPP premiums will especially have to increase for younger workers if they are to have adequate retirement income in the years to come.

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Posted in: Canada, Full Comment  Tags: Jack Mintz, Employment Insurance, payroll taxes

I Had Minimal Problems Getting EI But...

...I don't understand how not having money for paying bills, buying food, etc. is any different in Nfld. or Manitoba or Ontario, etc. and there is a need for consistency across the country. 

A Charter case over EI benefits

A former Gap employee with Down’s was ineligible for Employment Insurance

by Colby Cosh on Thursday, May 6, 2010 11:20am - 15 Comments

 

Getty Images

In 2007, Sabrina Prokopiuk, 32, was laid off for four months from the Gap in Winnipeg’s Polo Park Shopping Centre while the store underwent renovations. Prokopiuk, who has Down’s syndrome, had worked at the store tidying changing rooms since November 1999. As far as her bosses were concerned, she was like any other employee. But when it came to collecting Employment Insurance, her Down’s had left her at a small disadvantage.
Prokopiuk had only been able to work 574 hours in the 12 months before the store went into mothballs. In Corner Brook, Nfld., or some other place with high unemployment, that would have qualified her easily for EI benefits. In Manitoba, it wasn’t quite enough; she needed 700. Manitoba’s Public Interest Law Centre is helping Prokopiuk appeal that EI board decision on the basis of the anti-discrimination provisions in the Charter of Rights. They have filed a memorandum with the Federal Court, which will designate an umpire to hear her Charter case, probably this fall or next spring.

EI uses hours of work to measure a claimant’s “attachment to the labour force.” PILC’s Byron Williams wants to know why there is geographic discrimination in its standards, but no accommodation for Prokopiuk’s disability. Down’s syndrome, no less than living in a high-unemployment region, makes it harder to find a job. And even if you get one, being limited to particular duties or having to coordinate shifts with a helper can make it hard to amass work hours.
“Sabrina worked at a series of unpaid jobs, trying to enter the labour force, before the Gap hired her,” he says. “Anyone would be hesitant to compare his ‘attachment’ to work with hers.”
Prokopiuk has moved on to new part-time jobs. Her mother Shirley says she sought legal assistance for her daughter because she felt that “a big injustice” was being done and she knew other adults with developmental disabilities had the same problem. “Some things about filing a claim really intimidated Sabrina,” says Shirley, “but she knows she’s helping other people.”

Why DO We Bring In Migrant Workers?

Too lazy in Halifax to work?

By STEPHEN MAHER Ottawa Bureau
Tue. Nov 24 - 4:46 AM

OTTAWA — If anyone ever stops Nova Scotia farmers from hiring migrant labourers to harvest their crops, they would destroy a lot of businesses because unemployed Nova Scotians don’t want those jobs, says Gerald Keddy, the Conservative MP for South Shore-St. Margarets.

"Nova Scotians won’t do it — all those no-good bastards sitting on the sidewalk in Halifax that can’t get work," Mr. Keddy said Monday.

He said if you want to "shut down the Annapolis Valley, and every market garden operation and all the apple industry, then don’t bring in immigrant labour. We’ve got 20 Christmas tree growers using immigrant labour this year."

» ALSO SEE: Tree grower defends using Mexican workers

Mr. Keddy was upset that a reporter called to check out a rumour that he had hired migrant labourers to work on his Christmas tree operation.

"Why would the question be asked?" he said. "Why would it matter?"

Mr. Keddy has an eight-hectare Christmas tree operation, which he runs with his kids. They don’t bring in any migrant labourers, but Mr. Keddy said nobody should criticize farmers who do because "they can’t get enough local labour."

It’s also great for the workers from out of the country, he said. "They pay the guys 10 or 12 bucks an hour. It’s a great job for the Mexicans. They’ve got to pay either their way up or their way back. It’s not slave labour here."

( smaher@herald.ca)