Employment Insurance review visits Bathurst ahead of fall report

Twenty stakeholders from the Chaleur region attended a consultation Monday morning in Bathurst to review the Trudeau government's 2016 changes to employment insurance and evaluate the federal government's efforts to improve delivery of EI services to claimants.

"There's a lot of issues about services," said Remi Masse, MP for Avignon-La Mitis-Matane-Matapedia, who was appointed by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and cabinet to lead the review.

"People having difficulty reaching an agent on a call, at call centres, and also having difficulty when presenting themselves in person at a Service Canada centre," he said. "So our goal is to see how we can improve those services."

In the 2016 federal budget,the Liberal government announced an EI overhaul— estimated to cost $2.4 billion over two years — and planned to temporarily enhance benefits for claimants in 12 struggling regions, and lower the threshold for hours worked to be eligible for benefits.

The review, which reached Bathurst as one of its final stops in a cross-country tour, has three goals:

- streamlining applications

- reducing wait times for service delivery

- reducing administrative burden for employers

Proposals and issues will be included in a report to cabinet later this fall.

In Bathurst and on the Acadian Peninsula, the workforce is made up of seasonal workers, and full-time employees, but a high rate of unemployment persists.

"When you're a seasonal worker or full-time worker and have lost your job, you can't wait one week, two weeks, two months sometimes three months," said Serge Cormier, MP for Acadie-Bathurst. "We've had people who have come to our office and said 'I waited three months for my benefit.'

"The message was clear. They want us to have a look at how we can approve the delivery of cheques, quality of services when they call, but also some people need human services. It's not everyone who knows how to use a computer."

The meeting was closed to the media and members of the public who were not scheduled to make a presentation.