The call has gone out once again, for the Federal Government to change the way it does its math when it comes to deciding how many hours are needed to qualify for Unemployment Insurance.
UFAWU the local fish industry union is spearheading the drive to bring the inequities of unemployment in the North to the attention of Ottawa. As the situation stands at the moment, Prince Rupert and Northwestern B. C. are in the same qualifying zone as the likes of Prince George, Fort St. John and Dawson Creek.
Because of this, the super heated economies of North East B. C. are making it hard for Northwesterners to qualify for EI benefits as workers find it hard to make minimum of 595 hours required to receive benefits. As recent as three years ago, workers only had to accumulate 420 hours to receive their benefits, but as the economy of Northern BC improved so did the threshold to qualify for benefits.
The only problem with the sliding scale of governmental accounting was at that same time that the Northeast was booming, the Northwest economy was sliding in the opposite direction. With a full or even half recovery still at least a few years off, many Northwest families are having a major problem making ends meet, with many having to turn to Social assistance.
What is particularly disappointing to local residents is that the Government has already made exemptions in other parts of the country that suffer the same situations. UFAWU has urged local residents to take part in a letter writing campaign, with letters of concern to be addressed to the Minister of Human Resources, Monte Solberg.
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However, it might be best not to get any hopes up. This is not the first time that Northwesterners have tried to bring the inequities of the provincial unemployment situation to the federal table, in fact it was about this time last year that shoreworkers' letters were delivered to Ottawa and over 365 days later the trouble with the system is still much the same.
The Queen Charlotte Islands Oberserver posted an article on the still contentious situation, the Minister may want to look at it as kind of an economics and geographical primer of a part of the country that he may not know that much about.
Union wants EI rules changed
Queen Charlotte Islands Observer
The union representing fish plant workers is campaigning to change EI qualifying regulations in the northwest, saying it's absurd for the coast to be considered part of the same economic region as booming northeastern BC. Because the unemployment rate is so low across much of northern BC, due to jobs created in the oil fields and the harvest of pine beetle infested wood, workers here must work a minimum of 595 hours before they qualify for employment insurance benefits.
But Christina Nelson, northern organizer for the United Fishermen and Allied Workers Union in Prince Rupert, said the north coast should have a much lower number because there are so few jobs here, unlike the rest of the region. Ms Nelson said Rupert and the surrounding area have one of the highest unemployment rates in BC. The union is lobbying to have the federal government change the boundaries, so that northwestern BC is considered separately when it comes to qualifying hours.
The government redrew boundaries for two areas in New Brunswick and Quebec in a similar situation, she said. The government is reviewing the northern BC boundary right now, and Ms Nelson is urging union members and anyone else affected by this to write to Human Resources Minister Monte Solberg.
Fish workers in Prince Rupert and Masset have been affected by the higher threshold, and many have had to go on social assistance instead of EI, Ms Nelson said, because they can no longer work enough hours to qualify. "People are living in poverty, it's a sad state of affairs," she said. "It's degrading as well. People feel, I'm a worker, paying into a fund, that I'm not able to access."
Until about three years ago, workers only had to accumulate 420 hours before qualifying for benefits. That was before the rest of the northern region started booming. Since January 2003, the unemployment rate has been steadily dropping, from over 15 percent to less than 10 percent. Ms Nelson suggests that people writing to Mr. Solberg point out that the northern "economic region" covers two-thirds of BC, that the oil fields are 1,200 km away from here, and that there are no jobs in this area.
Mr. Solberg's address
The Honourable Monte Solberg, Minister of Human Resources,
House of Commons,
Ottawa, Ontario, K1A 0A6.
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