COVID-19 in Canada – Programs for those who lose their jobs are insufficient

Editorial – In Canada and Québec, governments have announced a series of insufficient programs geared toward employment insurance and its meagre 55% of insurable salary. Here’s what’s happening elsewhere, such as in the United Kingdom where the government will pay up to 80% of the salary of those who lose their jobs. @ https://jobmarketmonitor.com/2020/03/22/covid-19-and-jobs-in-uk-government-to-pay-80-of-wages-for-those-not-working/

The House of Commons in Ottawa votes on Tuesday. The Canadian programs announced so far will not be enough. There is still time to act.

Write to your Member of Parliament. You can find yours here : https://www.ourcommons.ca/members/en/search?province=QC

Five important improvements need to be made, in our opinion, to the Employment Insurance Program:

• Eliminate the one-week waiting period before getting access to benefits.
• Make admissible for benefits all workers who are prevented from working or whose hours are cut because of this current crisis. This includes independent workers (which the federal government has already included) and new workers who do not yet qualify for employment insurance.
• Raise from 55% to 75% the rate of replacement salary during the period of unemployment. Keeping the level at 55% will likely be insufficient for many workers.
• Increase by 25% the maximum insurable salary, which is currently at 54 200$. In other words, rather than calculating the replacement salary on a ceiling of 54 200$, this ceiling would be temporarily raised to 70 000$.
• Extend to a maximum of 14 weeks the period during which benefits will be available for workers not eligible for regular benefits.

A deeper analysis @ https://wp.me/p2dzkS-mGx (in French)

Sign the petition @ http://chng.it/zKYxjMVc