Gerry Byrne, MP

Harper government changes law to allow EI rules to be made in secret

May 4, 2012 – Liberal MP Gerry Byrne said today, that while the federal budget speech may have been light on details concerning the government’s plans for overhauling the Employment Insurance program, the 425 page thick budget implementation bill which followed shed some darker light.

“And what has now become visible to the naked eye is that they are redesigning the way the rules can be written and imposed upon the unemployed in the future”, Byrne said. “That’s how they intend to get where they want to ultimately go; in secret! They are removing the current safeguards and protections for the type of work the unemployed must accept before collecting EI and taking them out of the statute and putting them instead into regulation. What this means is that the government can change the rules concerning EI eligibility and benefits behind closed doors without having to seek parliamentary approval and, therefore, avoiding public disclosure or debate. This shows that they have something very sinister, something very cruel to hide concerning where they intend to take the EI program and why they don’t want people watching them as they do it.”

Under the Employment Insurance Act currently in force, EI recipients have the legal right, under legislation, to turn down work if the job has little to do with the claimant’s usual profession or if it is inconsistent or unrelated to the individual’s training, education or past labour force experience. The Act also provides some relief to recipients if a particular job offer is at a substantially lower pay rate than their past history in the workforce suggests or if the job involves, as the Act states “conditions less favourable than those … recognized by good employers.”

The move from legislation to regulation, Byrne said, “means that means cabinet writes the rules from now on and can do so at any time without scrutiny or oversight and without parliamentary approval.”

“Get ready for the beginning of the largest forced exodus of Newfoundlanders from their ancestral homes since the Irish Potato Famine. Nice to see progress in the world isn’t it”, he said sarcastically.

709-637-4540