Tired of waiting, the Bloc Québécois will introduce an employment insurance reform

Photo: Sean Kilpatrick Archives The Canadian Press “The plan does not protect workers in the event of a worst-case scenario, which is a job loss,” says Bloc Québécois MP Louise Chabot, herself a former president of the CSQ.

Lia Lévesque – The Canadian Press

Published yesterday at 7:46 a.m. Updated yesterday at 4:24 p.m.

• Canada

Tired of waiting for the overhaul promised since 2015, the Bloc Québécois tabled a bill on Tuesday to improve access to employment insurance and correct certain irritants.

“The system, currently, through its various criteria, is unfair, or discriminatory towards certain workers. And that is what we essentially want to correct with the bill,” confided Louise Chabot, Bloc member and critic for labour issues, in an interview.

“The Bloc is acting where the Liberal government failed.” It is proposing what it describes as “robust amendments to the Employment Insurance Act,” which are “in response to the government's inertia, to its laxity.”

A reform was promised in 2015, then reiterated in 2019 and 2021. But only pilot projects have been adopted or adjustments made to the system, recently deplored two organizations dedicated to defending the rights of the unemployed: the Mouvement autonome et solidaire des sans-emploi (MASSE) and the Mouvement action chômage de Montréal.

The problems of accessibility to employment insurance have been denounced for several years. Union organizations have already pointed out that only 40% of the unemployed qualify to receive employment insurance benefits.

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“It's really about accessibility issues. Whether we're talking about illness, whether we're talking about the number of hours to qualify. There are all these issues that mean that today, the system does not protect workers in the worst case scenario, which is a job loss,” summarized Ms. Chabot, who is herself a former president of the CSQ union.

Ms. Chabot specified, during a press conference Tuesday in Ottawa, that she is proposing a single rate of 420 hours or 12 weeks to have access to benefits.

Two problems have been particularly raised in the news: that of workers in seasonal industries and that of workers on maternity leave whose jobs are eliminated following a company restructuring.

Many workers in seasonal industries fall into what is called the “black hole.” This is the period during which employment insurance benefits have been exhausted, but work has not yet resumed.

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The case of workers on maternity leave who lose their jobs following a corporate restructuring has even ended up in court. And the case is not closed. These workers do not have access to regular employment insurance benefits because they have not accumulated enough insurable hours of work, since they were on maternity leave when their position was eliminated.

“Our proposal aims precisely to know where the parties will stand on this major issue of employment insurance. They will have to commit themselves,” said Ms. Chabot.

“Will the Conservatives, who aspire to power, take up the cause and get involved and commit to reforming the system?? Will the current government, which is on the verge of failure, which had promised since 2015 to reform the system and which has never done so, take the measure and decide that it can reform the system?? I think that this is a proposal where the bill will make its way,” concluded the Bloc Québécois MP.

The Minister responds

Questioned in the House of Commons, the federal Minister of Employment and Workforce Development, Randy Boissonnault, responded to the MP that “modernizing the employment insurance system is a priority for our government.”

He noted various changes that have already been made to the system, affecting seasonal workers and sickness benefits in particular. “We have made very significant changes,” he said.

Asked by the Bloc Québécois MP to support her bill, Minister Boissonnault responded: “We will continue to modernize the employment insurance system for all Canadians, from coast to coast.”