Employment insurance whistleblower still seeking justice three years later

Sylvie Therrien considers herself a “bit of a rebel” — someone who doesn’t like being told to keep quiet when she disagrees or feels an injustice is being committed.

So when she was asked to help the government squeeze EI payouts, she refused to quietly play along.

Tory Candidate Supportive of Drug Tests for EI Recipients

Anyone wanting to receive Employment Insurance benefits should first have to pass a drug test, a Conservative MP who is running for re-election in British Columbia said this week during an all candidates' meeting.

The Liberal candidate agreed with him during the meeting for the Prince George-Peace River-Northern Rockies riding, but later in an interview said he has changed his mind.

The candidates, Conservative Bob Zimmer and Liberal Matt Shaw, were responding to a question from an audience member at the Oct. 4 meeting at the recreation centre in Fort Nelson.

Ottawa spends $1.3-million fighting sick moms’ EI disability benefits lawsuit

The federal government has spent more than $1.3-million in legal fees to prevent new mothers who fell seriously ill while on maternity leave from collecting disability benefits in addition to the employment insurance that is paid to new parents.

A class action lawsuit was launched in Federal Court in 2012 by two Calgary women on behalf of an estimated tens of thousands of new mothers who were denied the EI disability benefits or dissuaded from applying for them. It is seeking more than $450-million in compensation.

EI Payouts On The Rise In Canada, Out Of Control In Alberta

The number of Canadians on Employment Insurance rose for the eighth straight month in July, Statistics Canada reported Thursday.

It's a sign that Canada’s labour market continued to struggle into the third quarter of this year, despite signs of a bounce-back in some parts of the economy at the start of the quarter.

EI for self-employed costs $40M to administer, pays only $21M in benefits

Can campaign promises cost more than they're worth?

A document obtained by CBC News under Access to Information suggests Stephen Harper's Conservatives have discovered the cost of delivering a new program that turns out to be less popular than expected.

Use Of EI Funds By Tories To Help Balance Budget Draws Criticism

The federal government is using $1.8 billion in surplus EI funds to help balance its books, drawing criticism from opposition parties and labour groups who say the money belongs in taxpayers’ pockets.

Finance Minister Joe Oliver delivered Tuesday the Tories’ long-promised balanced budget ahead of this year’s federal election — though it was one that eked out a very small surplus of $1.4 billion.

To get there despite a $6 billion decline in revenues due to falling oil prices, the government had to take $2 billion out of its $3 billion contingency fund and dip into the country’s EI fund.

Computer glitch withholds $1.7M in EI payments to struggling families

The federal government hasn't provided hundreds of low-income families their full government benefits since at least 2007, an internal review has found.

A staff member at Employment and Social Development Canada recently identified a "system anomaly" that has been withholding employment insurance money from about 800 needy families in each of the last eight years.

2013 Federal Budget Made It More Difficult To Process EI Claims: Doc

OTTAWA - A backlog in processing employment insurance claims that the government has yet to clear may have partially been a result of its own two-year-old budget cuts, a recently released document suggests.

A two-year-old briefing note to then-employment minister Jason Kenney outlines how federal budget cuts in 2013 made it more difficult to process EI claims and send either a payment or a denial letter within about a month of receiving an application.

Budget balanced on backs of contingency fund, EI and oil

The Conservative government’s long-promised return to surplus relies on a series of accounting moves that includes slashing the contingency reserve, assuming oil prices will climb and collecting billions more in Employment Insurance premiums than necessary.

While economists say it is of little significance whether federal finances are in a small deficit or small surplus, Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Finance Minister Joe Oliver have made the return to surplus a central political pledge for the Conservatives. “A promise made, a promise kept,” Mr. Oliver said in his budget speech Tuesday. “This budget is written in black ink.”

$2.7B employment insurance surplus balanced Joe Oliver's books

Remember two decades ago, when surpluses in the employment insurance fund started giving the Chrétien government billions in extra revenue to repay debt, cut taxes or fund other things?

For two years only — just until 2017 — those days are back. And how convenient: it's just enough to nudge Joe Oliver's books into the black in time for this year's election.

EI whistleblower suspended without pay

A federal fraud investigator has been suspended without pay, after she leaked documents showing that investigators had to cut people off their employment insurance benefits in order to meet quotas.

Sylvie Therrien told CBC News that she and other investigators were given a target to recover nearly $500,000 in EI benefits every year.

"It just was against my values, harassing claimants… trying to penalize them in order to save money for the government. We had quotas to meet every month," Therrien said.

Use Of EI Funds By Tories To Help Balance Budget Draws Criticism

The federal government is using $1.8 billion in surplus EI funds to help balance its books, drawing criticism from opposition parties and labour groups who say the money belongs in taxpayers’ pockets.

Finance Minister Joe Oliver delivered Tuesday the Tories’ long-promised balanced budget ahead of this year’s federal election — though it was one that eked out a very small surplus of $1.4 billion.

To get there despite a $6 billion decline in revenues due to falling oil prices, the government had to take $2 billion out of its $3 billion contingency fund and dip into the country’s EI fund.

Ottawa spends $1.3-million fighting sick moms’ EI disability benefits lawsuit

The federal government has spent more than $1.3-million in legal fees to prevent new mothers who fell seriously ill while on maternity leave from collecting disability benefits in addition to the employment insurance that is paid to new parents.

A class action lawsuit was launched in Federal Court in 2012 by two Calgary women on behalf of an estimated tens of thousands of new mothers who were denied the EI disability benefits or dissuaded from applying for them. It is seeking more than $450-million in compensation.

Poilievre obstructed efforts to improve EI system: Jennings

Canada would have a fairer and more equitable employment insurance system today if it weren’t for the Conservative government’s new employment minister Pierre Poilievre, says former Liberal MP Marlene Jennings.

Jennings, who served in 2009 on a blue ribbon panel set up to look at Canada’s employment insurance system, says Poilievre deliberately obstructed the panel’s attempts to improve Canada’s employment insurance system from the very start – seemingly carrying out instructions from Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

Employment insurance and Harper's flexibility fanaticism

As oil prices drop, rumours in the Maritimes are on the rise: the region's migrant workers, who send money home from their jobs "out west," might be coming home for good.

In 2012, the Conservative government made deep cuts to the employment insurance (EI) program. The cuts were meant to encourage workers in high unemployment regions to relocate to low unemployment regions, like Alberta. Now, having heeded the call for mobility, workers will return home to stubbornly high unemployment rates and a hollowed-out EI program.

Welcome to Harper's flexibility fanaticism.

EI backlog leaves Canadians in lurch

People buy insurance to have a safety net in an emergency.

With federal Employment Insurance, of course, it’s usually not optional — most working Canadians must pay EI premiums — but the basic concept is the same. If someone loses his job, EI is supposed to kick in after a couple of weeks to help pay the bills until that person can find alternative employment.

That means the federal government has a tremendous duty of care to ensure the EI system is functioning as expected. Legitimate claimants who’ve paid into the system expect — indeed, count on — the program to work when needed. Discovering it doesn’t can inflict real damage in people’s lives.

Harper government's new jobs plan gives "firms an incentive to fire workers"

The Harper government's new signature proposal timed for the return of Parliament on Monday "makes it weirdly profitable to fire people," according to an independent analysis by an economist.

Mike Moffatt of the Ivey School of Business at Western University analysed the proposed Small Business Job Credit aimed at companies that pay Employment Insurance premiums equal to or less than $15,000, and found "major structural flaws that, in many cases, give firms an incentive to fire workers and cut salaries."

That's not what the Harper government said last week when it unveiled a plan to save small businesses more than $550 million by effectively lowering EI premiums from the current legislated rate of $1.88 to $1.60 per $100 of insurable earnings in 2015 and 2016.

Fewer And Fewer Unemployed Americans Receive Benefits

WASHINGTON -- Fewer jobless Americans now receive unemployment benefits than at any other point in the past few decades, according to a new analysis by the Economic Policy Institute.

The liberal Washington think tank reports that as of August, just 25.9 percent of jobless workers were receiving unemployment insurance, the lowest rate since 1987. Unemployed workers are only eligible for benefits if they were laid off after an extended period of employment.

Justin Trudeau: An alternative to the Tories’ broken EI plan

Canadians need a plan for jobs and growth. After nearly a decade of Conservative government, unemployment is still stubbornly high and economic growth is sluggish. In the past 12 months, only 15,000 full-time jobs have been created in Canada. That’s why Liberals are focused on a jobs and growth agenda.

Since I became leader of the Liberal Party last spring, we have been talking about solutions to grow our economy and give Canadians a real and fair chance to succeed — infrastructure investment, access to post-secondary education, strengthening our trade relationships and innovation.

Ottawa will get $3.5-billion too much from EI premiums in 2015, report says

An independent actuarial report shows Ottawa will collect $3.5-billion more in Employment Insurance premiums than necessary in 2015, a year when the Conservative government is expected to release a pre-election budget jammed with tax cuts and new spending.

Finance Minister Joe Oliver denied this week that his government is using E.I. premiums as a “slush fund,” but the actuarial report released Friday is fuelling criticism that the Conservatives are tapping into E.I. funds meant for the unemployed in order to pay for other priorities.