Trudeau extends EI benefits to three more areas

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Residents of three more Western regions will be eligible for extended employment insurance benefits starting this summer, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Friday after touring fire-ravaged Fort McMurray and thanking first responders for saving much of the city.

The March federal budget allocated $582-million over two years to provide extra coverage for workers left unemployed by a crash in commodity prices, but residents of Edmonton, southern Saskatchewan and the southern British Columbia interior were exempted from the enriched benefits.

New jobs data released since the budget showed the need to extend benefits to the three regions, Mr. Trudeau said from Alberta's emergency operations centre in Edmonton.

"We've looked at the numbers. They show that additional help is merited," he said.

In Edmonton the extension will result in unemployed workers being eligible for five additional weeks of EI, up to a maximum of 50 weeks. The extra assistance for workers will be available as of July. The Fort McMurray area was one of 12 regions included in the initial package.

Alberta Premier Rachel Notley was a vocal critic of the Liberal government's decision to exclude her province's capital city from extended EI benefits.

She's argued that the decision didn't reflect the many Edmonton jobs tied to the struggling oil and gas sector. On Friday she thanked Mr. Trudeau for adding Edmonton to the list.

Much of Mr. Trudeau's visit on Friday was spent in Fort McMurray. The community's rebuilding will take years but the Prime Minister said that the federal government will help Alberta with every step of the process.

"We don't know exactly what kinds of resources will be needed, though we now have a better sense of the scope of the devastation," he said of rebuilding the northern city.

More than 80,000 residents of Fort McMurray are still in limbo nearly two weeks after flames entered the community. The Notley government has said that it won't release re-entry plans for nearly two more weeks.

Mr. Trudeau took the time to thank hundreds of firefighters and first responders in Fort McMurray. The city's small fire department, with only 130 first responders, is credited with saving much of the community despite the chaos of an evacuation that saw residents shunted into the northern Alberta wilderness with little warning.

The fire, later dubbed "the beast" by officials, quickly overwhelmed firefighters and was only beaten back after days of constant assault by crews and aircraft.

While 2,432 structures were lost to the flames, over 85 per cent of the oil-sands capital is still standing. That includes all of the city's vital infrastructure and most of downtown Fort McMurray.

"I don't think Canadians yet understand what happened. They know there was a fire. They're beginning to hear the wonderful news that so much of the town was saved," Mr. Trudeau said to the firefighters and other first responders after flying over the city in a military helicopter. "They don't yet understand that that wasn't a fluke of wind or rain or luck that happened. This was the extraordinary response by people such as yourself."

Evacuees at a reception centre two hours south of Fort McMurray in the town of Lac La Biche were divided on Mr. Trudeau's visit to the area.

"I think this is not a time to be concerned with politics. It shows leadership," said Kevin Nelson.

Chris Philpott, however, questioned why the Prime Minister hadn't made the trip sooner, especially due to Fort McMurray's outsized role in the Canadian economy.

"It's a lot better to see for yourself the devastation, rather than getting everything second-hand."

The fire is still burning around the city and now covers more than 2,400 square kilometres. While the spread of the flames slowed considerably over the past week, officials worry that warm, windy weather next week could reignite the fire's growth.

With files from The Canadian Press