Quebec / EI: The real ‘battle’ has been there for decades: the ‘battle’ for employment and regional development

As we predicted in our post yesterday Quebec / Employment-Insurance: Mrs. Maltais is doing everything to lose face, Ms. Maltais got a no for an answer it seems.

In her statement to Anne-Marie Dussault on CBC Continuous News channel in french after her meeting yesterday night, Ms. Maltais said that she was determined to continue her ‘ battle ‘ for the ‘the occupation of the territory’ she added.

Whatever we say, whatever we think, in fact, the real ‘battle’ has been there for decades. It is the ‘battle’ for employment and regional development, not  for the occupation of territory using EI.

Moreover, with more than 1.4 million jobs available in Quebec in the coming years, according to figures from her own department, there is certainly room to expand employment for seasonal workers.

What is sticking in those outlooks is the fact that employment will increase in the resource regions, while the labour force will drops according to Emploi-Québec (see Fig below). Thus, it would be best to prepare seasonal workers for the jobs for which recruitment will become difficult that to fight for them to stay in their current state of affair.

In addition, several measures can be taken to lengthen the periods of employment. Employers worried about losing their ‘seasonal’ workforce could benefit from the low season and train them. This type of measure has been used successful during the last recession in Quebec.

Employers covered could also join together to share and stabilize employment of seasonal labour. This type of measure is already in place in the agricultural sector.

All these measures can be funded by EI and, en prime, should prevent the application of the new provisions.

It is time to act, don’t you think?

Michel Cournoyer

Editor, Job Market Monitor

En français @

Québec / Assurance-emploi: la ‘bataille’ à mener est celle de l’emploi et du développement régional

Comme nous l’avions prévu hier dans notre billet Québec / Assurance-Emploi: Mme Maltais s’organise pour perdre la face, et il ne fallait pas être devin, Mme Maltais s’est faite dire non. Dans sa déclaration à l’émission RDI2460, Mme Maltais s’est dite déterminée à poursuivre sa ‘bataille’, ‘pour l’occupation du territoire’ a-t-elle ajouté. Quoi qu’on en … Lire la suite »