About 2 years ago the Conservative government of Canada lowered the
Unemployment Insurance rate to 57% of weekly employment earnings. I
believe that the Liberals who replaced the Tories one year ago reduced
the rate further in their first budget this past spring. 53% comes to
mind, but I'm not sure. Perhaps someone can provide that figure.
The first cut, to 57%, triggered a massive show of anger. Within days there
was a demonstration of, if my memory is correct, about 50,000 in Montreal
and later a few thousand in Toronto. Cuts to UI was prpobably the number
one issue which drew 100,000 to an anti-Tory protest in Ottawa on May 1, 1993.
There was also alot of trashing of government and Tory offices by angry
workers. Unfortunately, the Liberals got away with their cuts with little
opposition. They're still quite popular, mainly because they're not
the Conservatives. Nevertheless, the Liberals are implementing the same
agenda of cutting social programs, attacking immigrants, and so on.
Dan Shoom <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>on Nov. 4 John Buttick said:
================================================================================
>I havelost the message but there was a request for info on above. A
>colleague has sent me "Unemployment Insurance Regular Benefits" which is
>published by Employment & Immigration Canada. Briefly, one gets 60% of
>recent earnings to a max of $426/wk. The amount of covered employment
>needed to qualify depends upon the current official unemployment rate,
>e.g., at 10%, one needs 15 wks. The max length of time on receives UI
>also dependas on these two items. In the example just given, one can get
>up to 30 wks of UI.
>______________________________________________________________________________
>John Buttrick [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>Economics Dept. and CERLAC Phone: (416) 977-8329
>York University Fax: (416) 977-1706
>North York, Canada M3J 1P3
