WHEREAS the federal government has imposed Employment Insurance boundaries in British Columbia and these boundaries make no distinction between regions that have enjoyed economic prosperity and other regions which have been decimated by widespread economic decline; AND WHEREAS the criteria required to receive unemployment insurance benefits should reflect the actual state of the regional economy where people live: THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the UBCM lobby the federal Minister of Human Resources and Social Development to reconfigure the current Employment Insurance regional boundaries to reflect the geographic and economic realities in British Columbia.
Ministry of Human Resources Skills Development It is important to bear in mind that Employment Insurance EI is an insurance-based program. Employers and workers both pay premiums so that workers may collect benefits if they are unable to work, whether they are temporarily unemployed, sick pregnant, caring for a newborn or newly adopted child, or providing care or support to a gravely ill family member. Under the eligibility requirements for EI, workers receive benefits only if they have contributed to the program by paying premiums in the past year and if they meet qualifying and entitlement conditions. The EI program is designed to respond automatically to local labour market changes, taking into account the difficulty in finding employment. It divides the country into 58 economic regions intended to reflect areas of similar labour market conditions. The unemployment rate for each region is used to determine the number of hours a person residing in that region needs to quality for EI and the number of weeks payable. As a result, the EI program has built-in flexibility specifically designed to respond automatically to changes in the economic situation. Through the Variable Entrance Requirement, the number of insurable hours needed to qualify for EI benefits and the duration of benefits very depending on the unemployment rate of the EI economic region in which the individual lives. When a regions unemployment rate rises, the entrance requirement is lowered and the duration of benefits is increased. Therefore, the amount of assistance provided increases and support adjusts to the changing needs of regions and communities. Furthermore, Regulation 182 of the EI Act requires that the boundaries be reviewed at least once every five years for the purpose of determining if it is appropriate to makes changes. The review of EI regional boundaries is a multi-step process that requires extensive analysis of labour market and geographic data produced by Statistics Canada. On September 5, 2008, the Government indicated that the review of geographical and labour force data from Statistics Canada demonstrates that the current EI regional boundaries are working well overall and confirmed that they will remain unchanged. While the determination or regional boundaries is intended to identify areas with similar labour market conditions, it is inevitable that the boundaries will sometimes be subject to dispute. The next regulation-mandated review will take place in 2013.