The Bloc Québécois and the NDP have joined a common union front to demand a reform of employment insurance, at a time when higher eligibility criteria are to come into force.
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Starting Sunday, workers will need a minimum of 700 hours of work to collect employment insurance benefits. However, the threshold had been revised to 420 hours in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Let’s be clear: the Liberal government crowns itself workers. The Liberal government crowns itself with the unemployed, ”launched the deputy leader of the NDP, Alexandre Boulerice.
Mr. Boulerice and the Bloc Québécois Louise Chabot are calling on the government to reform employment insurance, or, at the very least, to perpetuate the criteria that were put in place during the pandemic.
Ms. Chabot placed the Minister of Employment and Social Development, Carla Qualtrough, in front of “two choices: to have the audacity to go ahead or the dishonor of abandonment”.
“Why is the government allowing measures to expire which they themselves said were essential to get through the crisis?” asked Larry Rousseau, executive vice president of the Labor Congress, during a press briefing in Parliament.
They were notably accompanied by a delegation from the Conseil national des chômeurs et chômeuses (CNC), who arrived on foot in Ottawa after a march that began in Montreal on September 14.
“This crisis has revealed all the flaws in the employment insurance program. […] It is one of the most dysfunctional, inequitable and unjust programs,” said CNC director Pierre Céré.
“It is after the storm that we repair a house. It’s time to make this reform, ”continued Mr. Céré. “Let’s take advantage of the upturn in the world of work to repair the social safety net. Let’s not wait for the next crisis.”
The new thresholds will not be applied east of the Bas-Saint-Laurent and in Gaspésie due to the already high unemployment rates.