The workers and the unemployed have waited long enough, say the Bloc Québécois, the New Democratic Party and the Green Party in unison. The three parties have just sent a joint letter to the federal Minister of Employment asking her to table her long-awaited reform of employment insurance.
Minister Carla Qualtrough was supposed to table her reform in the summer of 2022, according to her mandate letter when she was appointed Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Disabled Inclusion. of disability. A year later, the reform has still not been presented.
The problems with the employment insurance system relate mainly to the eligibility criteria: the case of seasonal workers who do not accumulate enough insurable hours of work to qualify, for example, or that of workers on maternity leave who lose their jobs and who have not accumulated enough insurable hours either.
At the end of the day, only some of the workers who have contributed to employment insurance can actually receive benefits when they no longer have a job.
For Bloc Québécois MNA Louise Chabot, one of the three signatories of the letter, “it is a lack of political will” which explains the federal government’s delay in tabling a bill to this effect.
“It was one of the priorities of the government. There, what we understand is that it is no longer one of the priorities. We got cheated. The workers have been cheated,” exclaimed Ms.me Chabot in interview Thursday.
“It was a mobilization of all the union centrals in Quebec and the four centrals in unison. There were extensive consultation sessions. The movements of the unemployed in Quebec have been associated with it. The solutions are known; it just remains to do it, ”launched Mme Sculpin.
“In these consultations, it was highlighted that the employment insurance system is still a crucial part of the social safety net, but that it is not adapted to the realities of today’s labor market. today and the evolution of the workforce; we couldn’t agree more,” write the three signatories.
To those who ask: why do we need a reform of employment insurance, when there is a shortage of labor in many sectors of activity? Mme Chabot replies that this is precisely the right time to adopt the reform.
“It’s the time when the unemployment rates are very low, where we did not actually see high rates at 12, 13% as we have seen for many periods. It’s time to reform. It is not to wait for another economic crisis. We saw what happened during the pandemic: never that the employment insurance plan could have supported these millions of job losses across Quebec and Canada, ”she pleads.
The letter to Minister Qualtrough is signed by Ms.me Chabot, by Daniel Blaikie, from the NDP, and by Mike Morrice, from the Green Party of Canada.