Affiché le jeudi, 13 mai 2010

Introduction

On behalf of the 3.2 million members of the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC), we want to thank you for affording us the opportunity to present our views. The CLC brings together Canada’s national and international unions along with the provincial and territorial federations of labour and 130 district labour councils whose members work in virtually all sectors of the Canadian economy, in all occupations, in all parts of Canada.

The Canadian Labour Congress welcomes and urges all parties to support this important Bill.

Access

The Bill would expand access to regular benefits to 360 hours. As members are aware, the CLC has long called for such a uniform entrance requirement of 360 hours across the country.

Level of Benefits

The Bill would modestly increase EI benefits to 60% of earnings, calculated on the basis of the best 12 weeks over the previous year. We welcome the proposed move to 60% of the best 12 weeks. Members should recognize that the average benefit today is very low — at about $350 per week — barely enough to support even a single person above the poverty line. The maximum benefit today is about $150 less per week than it was in the last recession.

Duration/Exhaustees

It can be estimated that a new EI claimant today will, on average, qualify for about 38 weeks or nine months of benefits. That is the average of 31 weeks before the recession (2006-07), plus the extra five weeks added in the last Budget, plus the extra two weeks generated on average by a two-percentage-point rise in the national unemployment rate.

At this point in the recession, jobs are still very hard to find. Between the start of the recession and September 2009, the average duration of a spell of unemployment has risen from 13.6 to 17.0 weeks, and more than one in five unemployed workers in February 2010 had been out of work for more than six months, clearly placing those on EI at risk of running out in the very near future if, in fact, they have not already exhausted it.

While we notice that this Bill improves access and level of benefits, the duration of benefits remains a concern that still needs to be addressed.
 

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