Where's $54 billion in employment insurance premiums?

The Supreme Court of Canada will hear a labour movement complaint that the federal government is abusing the multi-million-dollar Employment Insurance (EI) program.

The country's top court has agreed to hear arguments from trade unions about how the federal government collects and uses employment insurance surpluses.

The consent by the court to look at the matter was announced on May 24. As is customary, the court gave no reasons for its decision and it is not known how long it will take before the matter is addressed.

The Confederation of National Trade Unions (CNTU) in Quebec is arguing that federal governments dating back years have abused EI by diverting surplus revenues from the program for purposes other than those intended by Parliament when the program was established.

Since 1996, it is estimated that Ottawa has collected $54 billion in employment insurance premiums while placing major restrictions on which workers are entitled to collect benefits.

To date, two lower courts in Quebec, the Quebec Superior Court and the Quebec Court of Appeal, have turned down arguments by the unions.

LINK: NUPGE

LINK: NAWL - EI and maternity benefits

LINK: F-email Fightback - EI

BC Moms scramble to merit EI

Two Lower Mainland mothers say they are straining to qualify for Employment Insurance benefits for maternity leave because they became pregnant too quickly after having their first child. Vancouver resident Carol Adams and her North Vancouver friend Meagan Raback both have one-year-olds. And though they didn't plan it, they both became pregnant during their first maternity-leave period as they were preparing to head back into the work force.
Now they say they are scrambling to rack up enough hours of work to be eligible for Employment Insurance. Pregnant women must accumulate 600 EI–insurable hours of work in the past year to qualify for maternity benefits.

"I have to work right up until the end [of her pregnancy], working full-time hours, if I hope to get my best wages," Adams told the Georgia Straight. "So when I am at my most tired at the end, when I am big and have a daughter [Samantha] I can't pick up any longer, I either have to start taking my mat leave–not good for me as I want to spend as much time with my [new] baby as possible–or I work right to the end."

The Adams family is also "house poor" as a result of an extra mortgage forced on them by the leaky-building envelope they bought into. They do not want to move, because they say the market is too hot for them to afford anything comparable elsewhere.

Before discovering she was pregnant a second time, Raback and fiancé Logan McPherson had put a down payment on a new two-bedroom Port Moody condo. They will move there in a few weeks, though Raback admits "space will be tight" and the expanding family "could not afford a three-bedroom right now".

"I didn't go back to work right away because it was too hard," Raback told the Straight of the arrival of her son, Dexter. "I didn't want to put him in daycare right away because he was a really fussy baby and didn't sleep well. Daycare would not have got him to nap on time, so I was just going to wait. I was starting to look for work again and I got pregnant again, and so then I was like, 'Nobody is going to hire me now, because I'm pregnant.' I was in sales and marketing, and you have to be very flexible and work long hours. My friend is a manager at a restaurant, and she told me I could serve when I wanted to and at night, and that way I wouldn't have to put Dexter in a daycare. So I am doing three nights a week, and now I am picking up more shifts to get my 600 hours."

Sue Foster, Service Canada director of benefit entitlement, told the Straight the situation may have been different had Adams stayed in Whistler, the town where she and Raback met. Whistler is part of the federal Best 14 Weeks pilot program, which covers 23 economic regions in Canada. The program uses the full-time weeks when mothers are earning peak pay, which helps in areas offering predominantly seasonal or fluctuating employment.

"If you are included in the pilot, you can potentially have a benefit rate that reflects more your full-time weeks," Foster said. "That's the idea behind it." Foster then directed the Straight to the office of Monte Solberg, federal minister of Human Resources and Social Development on the question of including Greater Vancouver in the Best 14 Weeks pilot. By Straight press time, Solberg had not called back.

There is currently no national daycare program, though Prime Minister Stephen Harper's minority Conservative government introduced the universal child-care benefit program in 2006, which pays out $100 a month to each child–up to $1,200 a year–under the age of six.

LINK: Georgia Straight

Screaming about Alberta's compassionate care leave

Last month a Sacramento, California amusement park added a ride called the Screamer. This thing takes riders 168 feet in the air, spins them, and then drops them face-first towards the ground at 65 miles an hour.

Talk about a scream. The funny thing, though, is that riders are forbidden from screaming on the screamer. In fact, they are warned that any noise from them will mean they are pulled from the ride. The Screamer riders are told by park employees to muffle their shrieks by placing their hands firmly over their mouths. One teenage rider interviewed at the park stated the obvious: “Don't have a ride called ‘Sky Screamer’ if you can't scream while you're in the air.”

The Screamer on which you cannot scream is a little bit like Compassionate Care Leave in Alberta, which is not a leave and is anything but compassionate. Compassionate Care Leave is defined by federal law as “the provision of care to a gravely ill or dying spouse or common-law partner, child or parent, sibling, grandparent, grandchild, in-law, aunt, uncle, niece, nephew, foster parent, ward, guardian or a gravely ill person who considers the claimant to be like a family member, who has a significant risk of death within 26 weeks.”

• Three years ago the federal government changed the Employment Insurance (EI) rules to provide people with 6 weeks of EI in order to provide care to a terminally ill relative. Every Canadian province except Alberta has changed their labour laws to protect the jobs of the people who take this leave. You read that right: in every Canadian province, if you take time off work to care for your dying spouse, parent, or child your job is protected. Except in Alberta.
• In Alberta, notes employment law specialist Yosie Saint-Cyr, the editor at HRinfodesk.com, those “employees who request leave to care for an ailing family member ... will not have job protection, meaning employers will not be obliged to keep their jobs or reinstate them after their leave ends.”
• Study after study shows that around two-thirds of these caregivers are women. Women are more likely to be the care receivers and more likely to be the caregivers. There is, in the words of Prairie Women's Health Centre of Excellence, a “differential impact” on women.

LINK: Read complete article at Vue weekly

New moms need better benefits

Mother’s Day, we celebrate our moms and their valuable contribution to our lives and our communities. Yet, despite the important role mothers play in our society, some of the federal government’s policies leave us wondering if mothers – and indeed, children – really matter to the nation’s decision makers.

Women’s Network PEI, assisted by an Advisory Committee of women from Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador, has recently completed extensive research on the topic of maternity and parental benefits.

Our findings show clear inequities in the maternity and parental benefits currently available under the Employment Insurance Act (EI).

In Atlantic Canada, women’s paid work is often part-time and in lower-paid occupations, or full-time seasonal, and insecure. These non-standard work arrangements mean that many women do not meet the EI criteria to qualify for maternity and parental benefits.

The Women’s Network PEI Atlantic Advisory Committee recommends improvements to the current EI system so that it takes into account the unique position that women have in the paid workforce.

To improve access to benefits for women who have had interruptions in their paid work and allow them to accumulate the required hours, a longer "reach-back" provision (similar to what is allowed in the Self-Employment Benefit Program) is necessary.

The wage replacement level, currently at 55 per cent, is too low and must increase so that mothers can maintain a basic standard of living after having children.

Self-employed women are not eligible for maternity benefits and this must change.

And it is not just Women’s Network PEI that believes Canada’s maternity and parental leave ought to be improved.

The Ministerial Advisory Committee on Child Care Spaces Initiative set up by the federal government recommended in a recent report that maternity and parental leave be extended from 52 weeks to 18 months – and eventually to 2½ years – in order to address the limited spaces available for infant child care. We are pleased that the federal committee recommended enhancements to the current maternity and parental benefit program.

However, the report does not address the issue that many mothers are not eligible for benefits in the first place, because they are either employed in non-standard work or self-employed.
Norway, Germany and France have the best policies and programs for mothers. Their inclusive and comprehensive maternity and parental benefits programs should serve as an example of international best practices for Canadian policy makers.

These European countries know that maternity and parental benefits are critical for the effective caregiving of children, the economic security of families and the well-being of society. With many new mothers not able to access benefits today in Canada, more must be done.

On this Mother’s Day, let’s take a moment to reflect on the changes that are necessary to improve maternity and parental benefits and to demand that the federal government makes those changes. It’s one sure way of telling mothers that they do matter.

For more information about the Improving Maternity and Parental Benefits for Canadians project, please visit our web site: www.wnpei.org. The general public is invited to attend our If Mothers Mattered events on Saturday, May 19 from 2-4 p.m. at the Keshen Goodman Library, 330 Lacewood Drive, and Tuesday, May 22 from 7-9 p.m. at the Rockingham Community Centre, 199 Bedford Highway with more events to be held in June. At the events, there will be a screening of the new documentary, The Motherhood Manifesto, followed by a report back on the National Association of Women in the Law 2007 conference entitled Mothering the Law: Defending Women’s Rights and a presentation by the new organization Equal Voice.
Tamara Lorincz is a representative on the Atlantic Advisory Committee for Maternity and Parental Benefits, and Michelle Harris-Genge is co-executive director of the Women’s Network PEI.

Rabble Links

HOCKEY WIVES AND ABORTION

I hate picking on women. We're born at a disadvantage and in our wild flailing to stay afloat, we make such easy targets. But really, do the wives and girlfriends of the Ottawa Senators have to dress up in matching pink team sweaters and call their ad hoc union "The Better Halves"?
by Heather Mallick
http://www.rabble.ca/columnists_full.shtml?x=65200


WOMEN SHUT OUT OF EMPLOYMENT INSURANCE

The gap between men's and womenís EI coverage is significant: 40 per cent of unemployed men received EI benefits in 2004 while only 32 per cent of unemployed women did.
Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives
http://www.rabble.ca/in_cahoots.shtml?x=65175

CANADA'S ONLY LESBIAN

You can count the number of Canadian lesbian heroes on two hands, and Jane Rule, who died at her home on Galiano Island of liver cancer last week, represents one whole handful.
by Susan G. Cole
NOW Magazine
http://www.rabble.ca/link.shtml?x=65209

HATE? LET'S TAKE A VALIUM

That's a weird commission in Quebec, the one on hate, whoops, I mean "reasonable accommodation."
by Rick Salutin
http://www.rabble.ca/columnists_full.shtml?x=65243

SHAWN BRANT ON TYENDINAGA RESISTANCE

Shawn Brant is spokesperson for the Bay of Quinte Mohawks and is facing the threat of jail for his part in actions that have closed CN rail lines and blocked the 401.
by Matt Silburn
http://www.rabble.ca/rabble_interview.shtml?x=65054

SHAWN BRANT ON TYENDINAGA RESISTANCE: PART II

Shawn Brant, spokesperson for the Bay of Quinte Mohawks, discusses blockades, economic disruption and the necessity of sacrifice in the struggle for First Nations rights.
by Matt Silburn
http://www.rabble.ca/rabble_interview.shtml?x=65142

NAWL takes "Mothering in Law" to Parliament

Kudos to Irene Mathyssen and Maria Minna for meeting with NAWL and women's groups on Monday May 14 and reporting their concerns to the House of Commons. Here is the transcript:

Hon. Maria Minna (Beaches—East York, Lib.):

Mr. Speaker, I rise in the House today to recognize the invaluable work of the National Association of Women and the Law.

In celebration of Mother's Day, NAWL hosted a conference “Mothering in Law” to discuss the state of motherhood in this country. It painted a dismal picture.

Under the current employment insurance scheme, one in every three mothers outside of Quebec does not have access to the maternity and parental benefit program. Canada ranks last of OECD countries when it comes to investment in child care.

Now that advocacy and research will no longer be funded, the situation will be even more grim.

Today, women's groups are on Parliament Hill to meet with members of Parliament to urge them to support women's rights and equality, to reform the discriminatory elements of our EI system and to reinstate equality into the mandate of the women's program and fund research to advance the cause of women's rights.

Canadian mothers deserve more than scripted rhetoric and sound bites from the Conservative government. We need a government that truly supports Canadian families.

Irene Mathyssen (London—Fanshawe, NDP):

Mr. Speaker, yesterday, many of us took time to celebrate mothers but mothers in this country need more than flowers.

What mothers and fathers deserve is better work-life balance. They deserve not to be penalized for taking time off to care for children or sick and aging relatives.

New mothers deserve real maternity benefits. Currently, two-thirds of women who pay into EI cannot access maternity benefits.

Parents need affordable, not for profit child care so that working families can make ends meet. In order to make jobs work for women, we need to ensure flexible and family friendly workplaces.

This is the reason I introduced a motion that calls on the government to implement a multi-stakeholder task force to produce recommendations for better life-work balance choices. Women and men in this country should not need to choose either family or work. Canadians deserve the opportunity to do both.

Today the National Association of Women and the Law are here to discuss with parliamentarians many of these equality issues. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the organization for its work.

LINK: Hansard May 14, 2007

LINK: NAWL

Wednesday Digest

EI short-changes women, study suggests: Canadian women are being unfairly short-changed by the country's Employment Insurance system, which was made more restrictive a decade ago and now boasts a multibillion-dollar surplus, a study concludes.The study for the left-leaning Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, to be released today, finds the qualification requirements for EI have left many women who lose their jobs out of pocket despite having paid their fair share of premiums.

NDP to set aside ridings for women, minorities in 2009 provincial election: The NDP have kick-started their election campaign with a pledge to put more women and minorities into the B.C. legislature.Although the next provincial election isn’t until 2009, NDP Leader Carole James said the enthusiasm that came out of the party’s weekend convention in Vancouver shows they are ready for a fight with the governing Liberals.

Social services in trouble: CUPE delegates meet: Social service workers from across thecountry will meet in Ottawa for three days this week to plan strategies forimproving public services and protecting their working conditions. Confrontedwith chronic underfunding, they will join forces to make their voices heardand to remind people that they offer vital services to children and othervulnerable persons. Françoise David, a feminist, environmentalist and social justiceactivist, and Linda Duxbury, a professor at Carleton University's businessschool, will address the delegates.

CBC wants more women: It's part of a strategy that Kirstine Layfield, CBC-TV's executive director of network programming, said will "diversify" the CBC audience, which has traditionally skewed male because of the public broadcaster's emphasis on sports and news programming.

Pay equity still voluntary in N.B. and most other jurisdictions: When New Brunswick university students held a bake sale where sweets were offered at $1 apiece to men and 80 cents to women, the organizers were trying to upset people."It was supposed to offend people because it is discrimination based on gender. So is pay inequity," said an organizer.

Program to help abused women on P.E.I.: Under the Safety Circles program, a network of police, counsellors, neighbours, employers and family work with women toward keeping them safe and in more in control of their situation

Parliament supports historic NDP Child Care Act: Following years of false starts, empty promises, and inaction from Liberal and Conservative governments, Parliament took a historic step and voted to support working and middle-class families by moving the NDP’s Early Learning and Child Care Act to third reading. “Today, all opposition parties joined with us to move one step closer to building the foundation for a truly national, non-profit, affordable and high-quality child care program,” said NDP MP Denise Savoie (Victoria).

A new United Nations report on the plight of children confirms what many Canadians already know – the Conservative government of Stephen Harper is content to let children fend for themselves, Liberal Social Development Critic Ruby Dhalla said today.

Advocates mark International Day of the Child with proclamations against spread of "big box" child care: "Reports from Australia highlight high parent fees, poor staff wages andworking conditions and examples of child neglect. A study by The AustraliaInstitute showed poorer staff to child ratios, insufficient food and less timefor children compared to community child care programs", says MornaBallantyne, coordinator of Code Blue for Child Care.

Helping her community, one member at a time: A prominent member of the Chemainus First Nation, Grace Elliott-Nielsen was a veteran social worker before deciding to devote her life to the needs of the native community through Nanaimo's Tillicum Haus Native Friendship Centre, where she has been executive director for 22 years