Edmonton may qualify for extended employment insurance benefits

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Edmonton may now qualify for additional employment insurance benefits announced in the federal budget but most of southern Saskatchewan may not, according to the latest jobless figures released over the weekend.

Ottawa has been under pressure to provide the extra benefits to unemployed people in both areas after choosing to help only 12 regions when it unveiled its budget in March. Currently, laid-off workers in areas such as Calgary, Saskatoon and Whitehorse can receive between five to 20 weeks more EI benefits.

But unemployed people in Edmonton and southern Saskatchewan have been out of luck even though both provinces' labour markets have deteriorated since crude fell to about $44 (U.S.) a barrel from more than $100 in mid-2014.

The government chose the regions based on whether the unemployment rate had soared over the past year as oil prices fell. But it was not enough for a province's jobless rate to steadily increase. Ottawa said it chose areas where the jobless rate had risen by two percentage points or more for a sustained period between March, 2015, and February, 2016, compared with its lowest point between December, 2014, and February, 2015, without showing significant signs of recovery.

Now newly released government data show the EI jobless rate for Edmonton at 6.9 per cent for the second consecutive period. More important, it showed that the EI jobless rate was still two percentage points higher than its lowest point of 4.8 per cent when oil prices were plunging at the end of 2014.

"Edmonton should now qualify," said Trevor Tombe, assistant professor of economics at the University of Calgary. "Southern Saskatchewan is right on the border of what I would consider qualifying. But if they are excluded, then so, too, should Whitehorse be excluded," he said.

For southern Saskatchewan, government data showed the EI jobless rate decreasing to 7.4 per cent from 7.5 per cent in the previous period. But unlike Edmonton, the jobless rate was not two percentage points higher than its lowest rate near the end of 2014. Similarly with Whitehorse, the EI jobless rate missed the two-percentage-point threshold and has improved since touching 8.2 per cent last year.

"The lack of clarity involves how long a sustained amount of time is. The second criteria is that you can't show significant signs of recovery. How we interpret sustain or significant, that is what is up for grabs," said Prof. Tombe, who has tried to replicate Ottawa's formula.

The federal agency responsible for EI – known as Employment and Social Development Canada – did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The 70-per-cent drop in oil prices had already slammed Alberta's economy before wildfires started burning down parts of Fort McMurray, home to the oil sands. Entire neighbourhoods and businesses have been destroyed and more than 80,000 people have been evacuated from the area.

In April, federal Employment Minister MaryAnn Mihychuk told The Globe and Mail that Ottawa would examine Statistics Canada's labour-force survey to see whether other regions qualified. The EI jobless rates were released after the jobs report on Friday. They rely on Statscan's monthly jobs report and are based on a three-month average.

The additional EI benefits extend the duration of employment insurance by another five weeks to a maximum of 50 weeks from 45 weeks. For long-tenured workers, the cap was raised to 70 weeks from 50 weeks.

The 12 regions that were chosen are: Newfoundland and Labrador, Sudbury, Northern Ontario, Northern Manitoba, Saskatoon, Northern Saskatchewan, Calgary, Northern Alberta, Southern Alberta, Northern British Columbia, Whitehorse and Nunavut.