The federal minister responsible for employment insurance says unemployed Canadians who refuse to be vaccinated could be denied benefits as long as public health concerns remain at the forefront.
The Liberals have added restrictive covenants for the payment of benefits, saying federal support should not go to workers who lose their jobs or work hours because they refuse to be vaccinated.
The rules do not apply to those who have a medical exemption.
Employment Minister Carla Qualtrough said the move was in part economic to ensure that workplaces are not closed due to an outbreak, and also to encourage more eligible Canadians to do so. vaccinate.
In an interview with The Canadian Press, Qualtrough said the rules will likely stay in place as long as public health remains a top political priority.
The latest round of government benefits for hard-hit workers is expected to last until early May, but Ottawa has the power to extend aid until the summer if needed.
“As long as the collective public health of Canadians is threatened and our economy is threatened, we will need to keep public health policy at the top of our decisions in the areas of jobs, labor and the economy.”, Ms. Qualtrough said.
“And I don’t know how long it will take”, she added.
Minister Qualtrough began as employment minister shortly after the October 2019 federal election, arriving at a time when the country had historically low unemployment.
The pandemic changed everything from March and April 2020 when the first wave shut down most sectors of the economy. Three million jobs were lost in those two months, while almost as many people saw their hours cut.
In May, the unemployment rate hit an all-time high of 13.7% as the government replaced the EI program with the Canada Emergency Benefit program and its successor, the Canada Economic Stimulus Benefit .
Federal aid was reviewed in December. It is now more targeted to the hardest hit sectors and includes a benefit of $ 300 per week for workers under lockdown. The service is only available in a region targeted by a containment order related to COVID-19, it is specified.
Ms Qualtrough said the last pivot for pandemic aid was devised in the fall when the Liberals sought to create an insurance policy against any new situation caused by the pandemic in the country.
“We knew we had to make sure that if something like Omicron happened, we still needed a tool to help Canadians who would lose their jobs or face reduced hours.”, she said.
“But we knew that the economy in September 2021 was very different from the economy in September 2020. So we couldn’t just continue with general measures that might perhaps discourage work or would not encourage maximum participation in the labor market. job.”
Last month, the unemployment rate reached 6%, 0.3 percentage points above the level recorded just before the pandemic in February 2020. And the share of working-age Canadians with a job peaked. high level never recorded.
Thinking back to the start of the pandemic, Qualtrough said the government wanted to target assistance to workers rather than providing a blanket benefit to all Canadians, some of whom, such as the elderly, who still benefited from their benefits. benefits despite the economic downturn.
As employment minister watching the best and the worst in the job market, Qualtrough says she is upset by the limited number of tools Ottawa has to support hard-hit workers.
She gave as an example the outdated systems that need to be updated and the rules that prevented some people from being covered by any measures taken by the government.
According to Qualtrough, the government made the best decisions at the time to help those most affected.
Jordan Press, The Canadian Press
–
