Complete lack of common sense.
Politics.
The number of weeks that an individual has to work to qualify for Employment Insurance benefits varies from 700 to 420 depending on the province. (That’s right. In some provinces, you can work for about 12 weeks and qualify for many more weeks of EI.) Anyhoo … the opposition parties want to make the standard the same across the country.
Wow. That actually makes sense. Is there a catch?
Of course there is. And it’s an issue of “national unity.”
The proposed standard would be 360 hours. That’s LOWER than the lowest level now. Are they insane?
Of course they are. They also want to eliminate the two week wait and increase benefits. Ugh. Sounds like the grad student union that formed when I was working on my PhD. “We want better health insurance, free childcare, free tuition, fewer hours and more money.”
I think they have this completely backwards. They should require that all provinces increase the number of hours needed to qualify for benefits to the higher number. See how that neatly solves the problem? Ta-da! National unity.
I suspect that the provinces requiring the lowest number of hours are PEI and Newfoundland and perhaps NB. Having lived in PEI, I know the culture. During fishing season, the people who own the businesses/boats give the hired men the minimum required hours of work and then lay them off. Then they hire another set of guys and give them their hours. It is a culture and work ethic that has grown up around EI. Same with the farmers. They work all summer and then collect EI in winter. Seriously. They don’t even look for work.
And that should stop.
I know so many people who have to pay into EI who will NEVER withdraw a penny of it and then other people withdraw 20X what they contribute.
It’s not a safety net. It’s a pyramid scheme.