Retired senator joins call for EI reforms
Published Thursday November 13th, 2008
OTTAWA - A retired Conservative senator from New Brunswick, upset that the Harper government sat on her year-long study on older workers for months, is joining calls from labour groups and opposition MPs to reform employment insurance before a recession swells the ranks of the unemployed.
Erminie Cohen of Saint John, a senator from 1993 until 2001, was appointed in 2007 to chair an expert panel on older workers.
Cohen, then 81, and her panel, which included one of the top economists who studies employment insurance, met with officials in every province and territory and held forums in several cities.
Cohen submitted her 110-page report months before then-minister of Human Resources and Social Development, Monte Solberg, finally released it in late July.
Six of the panel's 13 recommendations involved reforms to employment insurance.
Now, with the economy teetering on the brink of a recession, Cohen said those recommendations deserve a serious look.
"The thinking of the panel may be ahead of its time but our ideas were certainly an antidote to the economic trouble we're entering," said Cohen.
"Is it more timely now? I think it is."
Labour groups raised the alarm this week that employment insurance is not the strong safety net it was when Canada was last in a recession in 1991.
"Compared to when we hit previous recessions, our EI program will leave many Canadians out in the cold, unable to qualify for benefits," said the Canadian Labour Congress.
The CLC says the average weekly benefit today is just $335 a week, and that only four in 10 unemployed workers actually qualify for EI.
Cohen's panel, which finished its work before the current crisis, had called for Ottawa to:
*"‚let laid-off, long-time workers qualify for EI without having to live off their severance cheques first;
*"‚let these laid-off, long-time workers receive benefits for longer than normal;
*"‚design a "mobility assistance" benefit to help workers afford to move for training or new jobs;
*"‚undertake a fundamental review of EI legislation.
Cohen said the recommendation to keep severance cheques from delaying the flow of EI benefits - sometimes for months - would make "an enormous difference."
EI rules currently require workers to exhaust their severance pay before they can receive EI cheques.
Cohen's panel heard that workers see severance as similar to a pension banked on their behalf, and as a fund they could use for retraining, moving or starting a small business.
The current situation "is terrible," said Cohen. "It's the most glaring problem of them all.
"It's their money.
"It may be especially timely now with the tremendous changes taking place in the economy across this country."
Solberg referred to Cohen's report July 23 as he gave a speech in Vancouver, saying it was now publicly available, thanked the panel members for their work and outlined some steps Ottawa would take in response.
But he made no mention of employment insurance - and his low-key unveiling of the panel's report was not what Cohen wanted after a "solid year" of work.
She said she had pressed Solberg to hold a news conference that he and the panel would attend.
"We all felt there should have been more," she said. "It was tabled quietly on the Internet after several months of me calling Minister Solberg and him being very solicitous and understanding.
"I just think there was a hold put on it from a higher level.
"I think it was because it's a minority government and when you open up EI, you open up a can of worms.
"This is just what I think."
Cohen said she felt Solberg was "embarrassed" the report wasn't out earlier and with more fanfare. Hardly any news media reported it.
Cohen's panel included University of British Columbia economist Craig Riddell, who is one of the country's top experts on employment insurance, and Françoise Bertrand, president of the Quebec federation of chambers of commerce.
A spokesman for Diane Finley, the new minister of Human Resources and Social Development, did not reply to a message left Wednesday.
Solberg retired from politics before the fall election.
Two New Brunswick opposition MPs said they plan to push reforms to EI when Parliament starts sitting again Tuesday for the first time since the Oct. 14 election.
NDP MP Yvon Godin, the veteran MP for Acadie-Bathurst, said EI would not cushion workers in a recession now.
"In 1991 we didn't have it gutted like we do now," he said. "It used to be 15 hours for 15 weeks, and you qualify. Now it's 910 hours, or 840 if you've never been on EI."
Godin plans to reintroduce some of the private members' bills he has brought forward over the years on EI.
Liberal MP Jean-Claude D'Amours, MP for Madawaska-Restigouche, said Ottawa shouldn't have waited for a troubled economy before reforming EI.
"Now that they understand they're in a real crisis, I hope they realize they need to help real people," said D'Amours.
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So will personal bankruptcies as the max EI pays is around $450 per week meanwhile there is untold billions in the fund from years of employee/employer overpayment for little in return.
None of those recommendations belong in EI. We pay in to that program with every pay period and most of us will likely never get anything out of it. The whole thing is just a tax in disguise and I flatly reject any use of the program in such socialist ways. I can not accept having to pay more for no benefit. What she is essentially arguing is allowing people to take out far in excess of what they put in. That is not how "Insurance" works. That is a welfare system.
For one, it takes monies from employers and employees and through misquided policies reserves billions each year as surplus. These huge surpluses are then folded into general government revenues where they are spent.
There is no large bank account used to store any of these monies.
In essense the program is largely a tax program for raising government revenue. Those monies acctually paid out to qualified unemployed are doled out much like any welfare program operated by the provinces.
Sources of family income form other family members must be reported and applied to calculations to determine reductions to EI benifits that might otherwise be payable. In this respect Employment Insurance is not much more than a income supplement program than a insurance.
EI is an expensive insurance considering the majority of monies do not go to payees in the form of insurance against loss or even to enrich the program istelf.