Visiting Atlantic Canada today, the Prime Minister re-announced the modest EI measures from the Budget. By way of background, in February, there were 1,448,500 unemployed workers, up from 1,114,000 before the recession. (October, 2008.) The unemployment rate was 7.8% in February, compared to 6.1% before the recession. Strikingly, in the…
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Prime Minister Harper today re-announced the 2011 Budget proposal to introduce a one year program to reduce EI employer premiums by up to $1,000 for small businesses which expand employment in 2011 compared to 2010. I would characterize this as more of a token gift to the Canadian Federation of …
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In a rather transparent temporary fix, the pre election Budget proposes to temporarily continue existing and recently expired work-sharing arrangements and to extend two “pilot projects” for one more year rather than let them expire in short order. The pilot projects are the working while on claim project which gives workers…
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