Only the NDP provides defence for EI premiums

The NDP is the only party that is prepared to defend workers and their contributions to the Employment Insurance program, the NDP said today, following a Supreme Court ruling that EI premiums do not currently have to be used only for EI. The NDP has a solution to the problem: we introduced Bill C-605 to create a legal fence around the EI Fund to protect it from being raided.

“The Liberal and Conservative governments collected $57 billion from workers and employers and told them it was for EI, and then they spent it on whatever they wanted” said Robert Aubin (Trois-Rivières), NDP critic for Employment Insurance. “They treated that money like it was their own, instead of acknowledging that it belonged to the workers and employers who contributed it.”

While they continued to rack up big surpluses in the EI Account, the Liberals and Conservatives were also cutting access to EI benefits. Today, fewer than 4 in 10 unemployed Canadians actually receive EI benefits. Meanwhile, Canadians are also being forced to pay to bring the EI Account out of deficit – a deficit that wouldn’t exist if the Liberals and Conservatives hadn’t pillaged the Account.

“The NDP is the only party that is committed to fixing EI and making sure that the unemployed have benefits when they need them,” added Robert Chisholm (Dartmouth – Cole Harbour), NDP Deputy critic for Employment Insurance. “That’s why we tabled legislation to protect the contributions that workers and employers pay into the EI program.”