Zero additional laid-off workers to benefit from latest Conservative EI re-announcement

Published on May 25, 2009

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OTTAWA - The Harper government's re-announcement on Employment Insurance does nothing to expand eligibility for the over 60 per cent of unemployed Canadians who do not qualify for it, Liberal Human Resources and Skills Development Critic Michael Savage said today.

"We're facing a single, national crisis, yet this government continues to leave Canadians who've lost their jobs out in the cold," said Mr. Savage. "While Liberals support EI training, this re-announcement offers no new money for laid-off workers, applies only to those who already get EI, and does nothing to ensure fair access across Canada."

Mr. Savage was responding to Human Resources Minister Diane Finley's announcement today that the government will help long-tenured workers upgrade their skills to help them find new jobs.

"Liberals continue to call for fairness through a national 360-hour standard of eligibility for the duration of the recession - so that Canadians who lose their jobs are equally eligible for the benefits they pay into regardless of where they work or live," said Mr. Savage.

EI currently maintains 58 different regional standards of eligibility. Under the Liberal EI plan, regional fairness would make 150,000 more people eligible for EI - helping many of the 340,000 people laid off under the Conservative watch since last October.

"Our proposal has been widely endorsed as the most immediate, effective and direct way to get stimulus dollars flowing into hard-hit communities, and yet the government continues to mislead Canadians with bogus claims that it would increase payroll premiums," Mr. Savage said.

Rather than opting to inject stimulus funding into local economies through increased EI eligibility, which vulnerable families spend on food, transport and shelter, the Conservative government has attacked EI as being too "lucrative," and has flowed less than 6% of its proposed economic stimulus spending.

"It's insulting to Canadians to hear their Prime Minister say that the 350,000 Canadians who have lost jobs since last fall would rather collect a fraction of their salary on EI instead of working," concluded Savage.

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