The Employment Insurance system is failing many of the the 1.4 million people who are out of work in Canada. The federal government should fix this in the upcoming budget. According to Statistics Canada, only 39 per cent of those unemployed workers were collecting regular EI benefits in December 2011. That's much lower than the proportion of the unemployed who were able to get benefits before the recession.
Why? Well, for one thing the system puts roadblocks in the way, such as not having enough intake workers to process claims for EI when people lose their jobs. On the other end, many people put out of work during the recession have run out of EI benefits, but have still not been able to find jobs. The next federal budget should focus on jobs. But EI also has to be fixed so that the workers who paid their premiums in good faith will have something to tide them over when they need it.
The government should be developing policies that ensure Canadians can afford their basic needs in tough times.
Troy Zohner
Prince George
