Liberals walk away from Employment Insurance Panel

September 21, 2009

OTTAWA –  “At the end of the last session of Parliament, Michael Ignatieff threatened to force another federal election because he claimed to be very concerned about unemployed Canadians,” says Leon Benoit, Member of Parliament for Vegreville-Wainwright. “In response, the Prime Minister offered to create a panel of experts to study options for the Employment Insurance program. The Liberals were invited to nominate three members of the six-member panel and their report would be considered by the Government.”

“Mr. Ignatieff agreed initially, but then decided to walk away from the panel and out-of-work Canadians before the study was completed,” explained Benoit. “In fact, the Conservative members of the panel were the only ones that tabled any proposals or ideas. The Liberals did not table one single shred of paper. Instead, their idea of ‘working together’ was to refuse to even consider adapting their irresponsible and expensive two month work year idea that would cost Canadian taxpayers $4 billion.”

“In contrast, our Government remains committed to supporting Canadians affected by the global economic downturn, and as part of our temporary stimulus, we are holding down Employment Insurance premiums,” continued Benoit. “Our EI premium freeze means that workers and business get two-year relief from the increases that they otherwise would face.”

The temporary Employment Insurance measures were announced last week by the Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development after work done over the summer by panel members.

“Clearly I’m happy that the Government will continue to help unemployed Canadians who have paid into the system for years and are having trouble due to the global recession,” states Benoit. “But, I was very disappointed that the Liberals chose to walk away from the process of EI reform and walk out on unemployed Canadians.”
“I think it’s becoming very clear that Michael Ignatieff’s sole objective is to force an unnecessary election that will harm our economic recovery and hurt unemployed Canadians” said Mr. Benoit. “Meanwhile, our Conservative Government remains focused on the economy and helping those hardest hit by the economic downturn.”