Canada's premiers are split over how best to change the qualification period for employment benefits, with the nation's largest province arguing for a one-size-fits-all scheme that eliminates all regional disparities, at least during the recession.
Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty lent support yesterday to federal Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff's proposal to replace a myriad of regional qualification periods with one nationwide standard.
The issue is at the heart of the work of a bipartisan Liberal-Conservative panel that is looking at ways to improve EI, an issue that could become a tripwire for a national election. Ottawa operates the EI program, but provinces have been lobbying for changes, in part because they pay people's welfare costs when their EI runs out.
"I prefer that we have one national standard. It doesn't have to last forever," Mr. McGuinty said yesterday as he entered three days of meetings with his fellow provincial and territorial leaders. "Pending the recession itself, with so many Ontarians and Canadians finding it very difficult to return to work once they've lost their job, I think it's important to come with one."
Currently, workers in high-unemployment areas do not have to have worked as many hours as those in regions where jobs are more plentiful to qualify to collect. The standards vary from 420 hours in some regions to a maximum of 700 in others.
While most premiers appear ready to support streamlining what is currently more than 50 categories across the country, very few back a nation-wide standard.
Last June, the Western premiers proposed reducing the number of categories and regions to three: urban, rural and remote. Mr. McGuinty said yesterday that it wouldn't be fair for a person in a remote part of the country to get benefits after working fewer hours than a laid-off worker in the hard-hit auto town of Windsor.
Quebec's Jean Charest and Manitoba's Gary Doer were less enthusiastic about a country-wide standard. Mr. Doer said southern Manitoba has a higher qualification standard than the northern part of the province, where it is harder to find a job. He also said the cost of the program to the federal government must be considered.
"We don't want to make unreasonable demands on a federal government in terms of what it would mean a year from now or two years from now in terms of their fiscal capacity."
Mr. Ignatieff has called for a qualification standard of 360 hours, a time period that Mr. McGuinty said yesterday was perhaps too short.
"That's one number, it may be a little on the low side," he said, adding that he would probably prefer 420 hours.
A TD- Bank report has estimated that Mr. Ignatieff's idea would cost about $1-billion per year.