EI claims climb, but many Canadians still being left behind

The drastic nature of this recession was apparent in February, as Employment Insurance claims spiked 18.6% compared to January. 325,700 new and renewed claims were received by the government, a record number since tracking for this particular data began in 1997.

However, the number of EI recipients climbed by only 7.8%, highlighting the greatest flaw of the EI program – more than half of Canada’s unemployed do not qualify. 1.4 million Canadians were unemployed as of February, but only 43% of them were receiving benefits. In Ontario, the number was even lower, at 32%.

EI is clearly not able to keep up with the scope of this recession, and more workers risk being unable to participate in the economy, leading to a downward spiral.

Kelly Law of Canada Without Poverty and I met with several Members of Parliament on Monday and Tuesday. We had some good conversations about employment insurance, and the need to adapt the program to protect more vulnerable Canadians. One of those MPs asked us to follow up by putting that information down on paper. Here’s our briefing note, in case it’s of interest to anyone. It summarizes a lot of ground covered by previous blog posts!