Sending out an S.O.S to Ottawa

City Council is planning to weigh down Councillor Kathy Bedard with mail to be delivered to the Employment Insurance bureaucracy. The councillor who will be in the nation’s capital on a visit in the month’s ahead, will find packed in her belongings letters from local shoreworkers, anxious to look for fairness in the current Employment Insurance system locally.

The crux of the problem seems to be the geographic area that the North Coast falls into, under the current EI system, local workers fall into the same catchment area as those workers in the hot box jobs areas of Fort St. John, Dawson Creek and Prince George, this despite the obvious decline of job opportunities in our part of the Northern BC region.

Because of that, local workers here need the same amount of insurable hours of 595 hours, which is getting harder and harder to attain in the dwindling industries such as the fishery. For the city it’s a worrisome problem as those that don’t qualify for EI will move over to the welfare rolls, a problem that the provincial government should be more pro-active about as well.

Of course the best case scenario would be a vibrant local employment scene, with industries locating here to take the strain off the existing employment base. Having the city become a tad more successful in its economic development projects might be helpful, but that it seems is a longer term project, dependent on many other outside forces and out of town investors.

For now, city council has seemingly decided that the short term solution is to try to squeeze more money out of the feds, sending the councillor to send the not so glad tidings from the north coast.

The Daily News had the full story in its Tuesday edition.

COUNCIL HELPING TO DRIVE HOME EI MESSAGE
Councillor Bedard will deliver letters about flaws
in the EI system while on a visit to Ottawa.
By Leanne Ritchie
The Daily News
Tuesday, September 26, 2006
Page One

Prince Rupert city council will be joining the United Fishermen and Allied Workers’ Union (UFAWU) in its efforts to restore some sense of farness to Employment Insurance Levels.

The union is in the process of working to increase winter work for local plants and fishermen as well as restoring fairness to EI levels, which have been set at a level that many local shoreworkers and fishermen a will not be able to attain.

Conrad Lewis, speaking on behalf of the local UFAWU executive, explained that this year the harvest of pink salmon on the North Coast was the smallest in memory and the run failed on the Alaskan coast as well.

With next to no pink salmon available for both catching and processing, seine fishermen and shoreworkers are not only having an extremely poor season, but most will not have worked enough hours to qualify for EI this winter.

“Shoreworkers and fishermen are facing another hungry winter,” said Lewis.

He went on to explain the EI hours are based on the unemployment rate over a region that stretches from the Queen Charlotte Islands to Alberta and from the Yukon to Quesnel.

This includes the booming economies of Prince George and the northeastern part of the province.

While Lewis made it clear neither fishermen or shore workers want to remain unemployed, and they are working to find fish processing work in the off-season, they have also embarked on a letter writing campaign about the unfairness of EI levels. They will also hold a march on Wednesday starting at 1 p. m. at Fishermen’s Hall.

Council agreed to ask Coun. Kathy Bedard to deliver letters from the union to federal representatives when she visits to Ottawa in the coming months.

“It sounds to me like this is a scenario where a cookie-cutter approach is being used,” said Coun. Tony Briglio.

But “the richness up the line” doesn’t match the disparity of the coast,” he said.

“It would be helpful for her (Coun. Bedard) to have a half pound of letters,” said Mayor Herb Pond.

Currently, shoreworkers are facing an increase from the 420 hours that used to be required, to 535 hours, a 42 per cent increase.

Lewis pointed out that the Federal Parliament’s Sub-Committee on Employment Insurance tabled a report called Restoring Financial Governance and Accessibility in the Employment Insurance Program back in February of 2005. The report recommended that EI regions be split into smaller areas and that job projects programs be more quickly implemented so workers can learn new skills while working at jobs that are EI insurable.

So far however, the recommendations have not been implemented.