OTTAWA – New Democrat Labour Critic Chris Charlton (Hamilton Mountain) presented a motion in the House of Commons yesterday calling on the Harper government to make much-needed improvements to extend Employment Insurance to the tens-of thousands of newly unemployed Canadians.
“With more and more Canadians losing their jobs every day, we need a system that can really help people who need it,” said New Democrat Leader Jack Layton. “The minister may believe that it is ‘lucrative’ to collect EI, but the truth is that Canada is running out of jobs and more unemployed Canadians deserve to access the help now, when they need it.”
According the Statistics Canada only 43% of unemployed Canadians and only 39% of unemployed women currently qualify for EI under the Harper government’s qualifications.
Thursday’s New Democrat opposition day motion called on the Harper government to:
- eliminate the waiting period for EI,
- reduce the number of work hours needed to qualify for the program,
- expand eligibility to include self-employed workers,
- raise the rate of benefits, and
- encourage training and re-training.
“There are many desperate people calling my office who have lost their jobs and who are unable to get help,” stated Alex Atamanenko, MP for BC Southern Interior. “It is our responsibility to help them survive during this economic crisis. Our main priority is to make EI easily accessible to help the multitude of Canadians left unemployed by the economic meltdown.”
Tags: EI, unemployment