Rising unemployment across Canada has forced a serious re-examination of the nation’s employment insurance system. If reforms being pushed by the Canadian Labour Congress and supportive members of Parliament are not made soon, many workers will be denied needed income and the government could be faced with a no-confidence vote.

More than 1.6 million Canadians are out of work. But fewer than half of the unemployed are actually collecting benefits due to rules, regulations and red tape in the employment insurance system.

Workers are finding it harder to qualify for benefits because they often lack sufficient hours on the job due to frequent furloughs, says Barry Stevens, First District political action/media strategy coordinator. The unemployment rate—currently between 8 and 9 percent—would be more than 12 percent if it included Canadians who have given up looking for work.

The IBEW and the Canadian Labour Congress are supporting a measure being studied by Parliament to reform the employment insurance system.

The proposal, under consideration by a bilateral panel, calls for changing accessibility rules to provide regular EI benefits on the basis of 360 hours of work, no matter where people live and work in Canada; extending benefits to at least 50 weeks in all regions of the country; and raising benefits immediately to 60 percent of earnings calculated on a worker’s highest 12 weeks of earnings.

Over the past several years, both Liberal and Conservative governments have diverted EI funds into deficit reduction and other channels. Because of those cuts, Ontario workers will receive $3.2 billion less in EI benefits in 2009 than they would have under the program in 1990. "Many people who lost their jobs last fall … will be forced to rely on provincial social assistance programs and food banks," says Ken Georgetti, president of the 3.2 million-member CLC.

Labour leaders say that reinvesting in the EI program would reduce pressure on the provinces and provide an economic stimulus to a suffering economy.

"I would like to think that benefits can increase by the unemployed joining together in some fashion," says Ernie Boundy, a 47-year member of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Local 2085, who has been out of work since April. "The government seems to have endless funds to assist corporations and executives," he says, denouncing earlier decisions to remove money from the EI fund.

If the Liberal Party, the New Democrats and the Bloc Quebecois all vote no-confidence because of insufficient action on reforming EI benefits, the Conservative government would fall. The panel was due to make a report at the end of September.