It is an old tried and tested political trick. If you want to look like a hero, break something while no one is looking... fix it and then take all the credit. If that statement has you scratching your head consider the case of Service Canada.
The offices are already dismally understaffed and unable to keep up with the demand of Employment Insurance (EI) claims. There is a perpetual back-log and many unemployed people are forced to wait over a month to claim the insurance benefits they paid the Federal Government to provide. Add to that many Canadians are only one or two pay cheques from poverty and there are definite problems that need to be addressed.
Many would say that the system is already broken, but unfortunately for the unemployed in particular it's not broken enough. In order to pack a political punch things must be at crisis levels. Enter the Federal Governments decision to reduce the number of offices processing EI claims from 120 to 20 nationally. Yup 20 and I did say nationally.
The Government is claiming that new found efficiencies will compensate for slashing the Employment Insurance unit by over 80%. That is quite a claim!
A closer look at how the cuts are being implemented brings a few more questions to mind. Of the claim processing centres that will be spared more than half of them will be in Conservative Ridings. (always dance with the one that brought you)
In Quebec at least three processing centres in NDP ridings (Sept-Îles, Rimouski and New Richmond) are seeing their jobs transferred to the riding of Megantic L'Erable — which belongs to Industry Minister Christian Paradis. CBC
Now all that is left to do is sit back and wait for the crisis to hit so in three years time you can fix it and everybody will love you... just in time for the polls to open.
The Canadian Government announced today that Employment Insurance (EI) benefits will be extended to families of seriously ill children. It will allow parents or legal guardians of minor children with a life threatening illness or injury to receive income support for up to 35 weeks. The change to EI is expected to be in place by June 2013 and can be combined with the existing compassionate care benefit.
