NDP promises to keep current EI rates
Mulcair also promising additional $2.2 billion for longer sick leaves
OTTAWA— The New Democrats are promising to freeze employment insurance premiums for the next four years — instead of cutting them as the Conservatives and Liberals both pledged — and use the money to reverse cuts and improve benefits.
“We’re not raising the rates of EI, we’re maintaining them,” NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair said Tuesday at a campaign event in Moncton, N.B.
“We’re maintaining them so that we can avoid the cuts, the cuts that the Conservatives have brought in.”
The current EI premium rate is set at $1.88 per $100 of insurable earnings, which amounts to a maximum employee contribution of $930.60 per year and $1,302.84 for employers.
That rate was projected to bring in $22.6 billion in premiums for fiscal 2014-15, according to the federal budget this year, and used to pay out $17.8 billion in benefits, with the remainder going to pay down a cumulative deficit the Conservative government attributed to the global recession. An NDP government would keep the rate at that level throughout its first four-year mandate and use this money to improve access to EI benefits. That would include $1.2 billion to set the eligibility threshold to 360 hours in the preceding 52 weeks anywhere in Canada.
The current threshold is between 420 and 700 hours, depending on the rate of unemployment in any given region of the country. That same reduced threshold would apply to people who recently joined the workforce for the first time, or are re-entering it after being away for two years — about two-anda-half times lower than the current requirement of 910 insurable hours.
The NDP is also promising about $2.2 billion in other measures including longer sick leave, expanded benefits to those in regions with a lot of seasonal work and high unemployment rates, and to better protect those with precarious employment.
A further $1.2 billion annually would go to skills and training, improving maternity and parental leave, and compassionate care for Canadians staying home to care for family members suffering from illnesses. The NDP promised to amend the Employment Insurance Act so any surplus amount received through premiums cannot be redirected to general government revenues.
After four years, the NDP said it would work with employers and labour to set up an independent board of directors to set premiums and manage the program.
“We’re not raising the rates of EI, we’re maintaining them. We’re maintaining them so that we can avoid the cuts, the cuts that the Conservatives have brought in.” THOMAS MULCAIR NDP LEADER
Dan Kelly, president and CEO of the Federation of Independent Business, welcomes changing legislation to separate EI premiums from general revenues.
“The fact that they would separate out EI benefits and ensure they are either used for lower rates or EI purposes is at least a better environment than that has existed for the last several decades,” Kelly said.
Kelly expressed concern about the other plans, noting the Conservative budget promised to cut the rate to $1.49 per $100 of insurable earnings beginning in 2017-18.
“Freezing them at current levels will feel to small firms like a big tax hike,” said Kelly, who said his bigger concern was that it would now be too easy for workers to go on EI. “The 360-hour requirement could mean you could receive up to a year of benefits after working 10 weeks and that is deeply troubling,” he said.