Desperate people who have lost their jobs and are quickly running out of money phone Welland MP Malcolm Allen's office looking for help.
They call the New Democrat as a last resort after exhausting their patience trying to figure out how to tap into the Employment Insurance benefits they thought they were entitled to receive.
Allen's constituency assistant, Marilyn Bellamy, estimated EI problems are the root of about two thirds of all calls the office fields.
'These stories are just awful,' she told a town hall meeting at the CAW Hall in St. Catharines Wednesday night. 'We hear them every day about people falling through the cracks. Well, there shouldn't be any cracks. We need to fill them up."
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Town Hall meeting calls for EI extension
I represented my MP at a town hall forum on Employment Insurance last night. I thought I was going to be introduced from the audience but, when I arrived, I found I was on the panel. Yikes! Here is a quote from the local press (I'm lucky it wasn't "duhhh"):
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
You rocked
ReplyDeleteGood for you!
ReplyDeleteWhen I'm not being a crabbyoldman I work in a job that sees many of the individuals who have been deemed "EI ineligible" and the numbers are huge. And for those who can get EI, the wait times, delays and aggrevation are only going to get worse. (actually the already have).
Thanks!
Don, there's so much I don't know about you.
ReplyDeleteWell, I'm generally pretty private but politics is bit of an interest for me (provincial and municipal politics in particular) and I couldn't resist when I saw the EI post.
ReplyDeleteDon't even get me started on social assistance, child care or affordable housing!
I started off as a social worker and switched to political work almost 20 years ago thinking that was where I could make a real difference. The attitude of this federal government toward the unemployed and less advantaged has me foaming at the mouth.
ReplyDeleteInstead of reducing the number of hours required for EI eligibility, they extend the people who already have EI for another 5 weeks (which caused a lot of trouble for people delivering employment programs, but that's another story). Not helpful. They had the opportunity to really help people in need, instead they further benefited people who were already covered.
ReplyDeleteJust wait for the next announcement. June 3rd, I believe.
The next few weeks may be interesting.
ReplyDeleteThanks for helping to bring this situation to peoples attention.
ReplyDelete