FEWO Committee Report

The Bloc Québécois would like to express its appreciation of the invaluable contribution made by the stakeholders and witnesses who took part in the study on the effects of the employment insurance (EI) system on women.

Having reviewed the report on the effects of the EI system on women, the fruit of a study that began in January 2009 and wrapped up in May 2009, the Bloc Québécois would like to express reservations about some of the recommendations.  The Bloc Québécois would like to express its viewpoint on some of these by taking advantage of the right to append a supplementary opinion to the report.

• IMPROVING THE SYSTEM FOR ALL BENEFICIARIES

The Bloc Québécois has brought in a number of bills aimed at improving the EI system, and these have included some of the measures that appear in the current report:

• introducing a uniform qualification requirement of 360 hours, irrespective of regional unemployment rates (Recommendation 3);
• extending regular benefits to 50 weeks on a permanent basis (Recommendation 5);
• eliminating the two-week waiting period (Recommendation 6);
• increasing the benefit rate from 55% to 60% or more of average weekly insurable earnings for both regular and special benefits (Recommendation 7).

This enhancement of the system, proposed by the Bloc Québécois, was endorsed in February 2005 by a majority of the members of the Standing Committee on Human Resources Development.[1]  However, it should be noted that the current report does not give self-employed workers, a category in which many women find themselves, access to regular benefits under the EI system as proposed by the Bloc Québécois and as recommended by the Committee in 2005 (Recommendation 22).

The Bloc Québécois also like to recall that the Standing Committee on Human Resources Development recommended (Recommendation 14) that average earnings be calculated on the basis of the best 12 weeks of insurable employment.  This report proposes instead that earnings be calculated on the basis of the average of the best 14 weeks of insurable employment (Recommendation 8).  In the opinion of the Bloc Québécois, the calculation should be based on the best 12 weeks.

• THE IMPORTANCE OF REASSERTING QUEBEC AND PROVINCIAL JURISDICTION OVER FAMILY POLICY

Social policies are clearly the responsibility of Quebec and the provinces, but the federal government is continually interfering where it has no right to intrude.  For this reason, the Bloc Québécois plays the vital role in Ottawa of ensuring that the federal government does not hinder Quebec’s ability to make its own social and economic choices and manage its own development.

The result, certainly, is that the federal government’s visibility is greatly reduced, but this is entirely appropriate given its constitutional role.  In Canada, Quebec is a leader in the area of family support.  Financial support for parents is more generous in Quebec, and Quebec families enjoy advantages that have no equivalents in the other provinces.

The report, recognizing that Quebec leads the way in family policy, proposes in Recommendation 10 that the federal government:

• “make maternity and parental benefits as flexible and equal as the Quebec Parental Insurance Plan (QPIP) by expanding eligibility, benefit levels and duration of EI benefits”;
• “extend benefits to the self-employed using QPIP as its model”.

Despite this recognition of the expertise and efficiency of the Quebec system, the fact remains that Quebec must be the sole architect of its family policy.  The Bloc Québécois would have preferred Recommendation 10 to recognize this aspect of QPIP as well by concluding with the following:

This recommendation does not apply to Quebec, which already has the expertise, the network and the contacts to identify and meet the needs of its citizens in its own area of jurisdiction.  Quebec must therefore be fully and unconditionally compensated for any program that the federal government introduces in areas of jurisdiction of Quebec and the provinces.

It is odd that the Committee evades full recognition of the Quebec Parental Insurance Plan and Quebec’s comprehensive family policy, since it is precisely this Quebec expertise that the members of the Committee recommend applying through Canada-wide accountability, which would in a short time result in shackling the freedom of action of Quebec and the provinces.

Without respect for Quebec’s jurisdiction in this regard,[2] it could not have developed its own policies to reflect the unique features of its own citizenry.  The Committee recommends introducing a new “coast-to-coast” policy without any concern for the fact that this would threaten QPIP and the family policy that is closely linked to it.

In conclusion

The Bloc Québécois considers that the Committee’s report reflects the interests of the workers who contribute to the EI fund and want to have access to it.  The proposed enhancements to the system would allow easier access for workers who lose their jobs.

However, the Bloc Québécois would have preferred that the Committee reorient the proposed measures in a way that complies with federal areas of jurisdiction.  Unfortunately, an approach that favours duplication and interference was adopted instead.  While the Quebec Parental Insurance Plan is cited as a model for Canadian benefits, the fact remains that the Committee has chosen to ignore the advances achieved by Quebec’s family policy.  Furthermore, other measures proposed in the report’s recommendations could also encroach on Quebec and provincial jurisdiction over family policy.  The recommendations should be rethought in order to leave the way clear for the full and free development by Quebec and the provinces of their own family policies, using their own expertise in their own areas of jurisdiction.