Half a Million Canadians Unemployed on Labour Day 2009

by John Laforet
posted on September 7th, 2009 at 13:11:33 pm

While it is fair to say most Canadians who are either enjoying the last long weekend of summer or spending it anxiously getting their children ready to return to school tomorrow probably aren’t thinking about the significance behind today; those who do, likely are thinking about the 500 000 Canadians who are unemployed. Labour Day is meant to celebrate the achievements of the labour movement and recognize the success organized labour has had causing improvements to benefit workers social and economic situations.

As an individual, I find the number of unemployed in Canada to be staggering. Five hundred thousand people is massive. If every single unemployed person lived in one city, it would be the size of Hamilton.

This is an unprecedented economic downtown, and at least in Ontario, unemployment in key sectors like manufacturing have been raising for years leading up to the full blown recession. One thing Liberals, New Democrats and the Bloc all seemed to agree on is that the Employment Insurance program in Canada was not suited to meet the needs of workers laid off in these numbers or during this kind of downturn. That’s why proposals for reform, which would see EI easier accessed, fairer for Canadians from coast to coast, and benefits more generous is in fact important.

Keep in mind, when times were good, the Federal government had huge surpluses in the EI account, and re-directed those funds for other government priorities and cut premiums for workers to reflect the predicted needs of the EI program. That worked when the economy was hitting new highs, and unemployment was at historic lows. I don’t necessarily endorse one party’s plan for reforming Employment Insurance, and I see this type of a reform as being more like a band aid on a broader challenge, but I do believe it is an important band aid and one I would like to see parliament work cooperatively on in the fall, instead of sending Canadians to another election that no one really wants.

Opposition parties also need to be very careful as Canadians have never elected four minority governments in a row, and polls show most Canadians want the stability a majority government brings. While the Bloc poses a significant challenge to any party forming a majority government, politicians and political operatives would be well advised to heed Canadian’s warnings about the desire to elect a majority and recognize forcing an election could cause a volatile political situation, where voters who aren’t married to a particular party vote strategically for the perceived winner, just to end the silly hour going on in Parliament.

For the Liberals and the Conservatives this could be really good or really bad. For the NDP and the Bloc it can only be bad. For Canadians, it’s un-necessary.

Let’s hope the election madness calms down long enough for all parties to genuinely try to do something to help unemployed people, and can come up with something more creative than temporary work at Elections Canada to do it.

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Tags: 500 000 unemployed, Employment Insurance Reform, Labour Day, Unemployment in Canada