CFIB Blasts Opposition MPs on "Irresponsible" Employment Insurance Bill

TORONTO, Sept. 24 /CNW/ - The Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) has condemned a series of proposed changes to the Employment Insurance (EI) Act currently being contemplated by the House of Commons, calling them irresponsible and damaging to the economy.

"For months, CFIB has been campaigning to prevent EI rates from increasing come January 2011," said CFIB senior vice president Dan Kelly. "We've met with 50 MPs in all parties to lobby against the looming EI premium hike currently scheduled for January 1, 2011.  Opposition MPs have been very supportive of our message that increasing EI premiums would be very harmful to small businesses and the economy at large. To have Liberal, NDP and Bloc MPs all support a private members' bill to dramatically increase the generosity of EI benefits is troubling to say the least."

The legislative bill in question, C-308, would reduce the qualifying period for EI benefits to 360 hours worked, increase the benefits to 60 per cent of total salary, and base that salary calculation on the highest-paid non-consecutive 12 weeks worked for the employee, among other measures.  Earlier this week, all three opposition parties supported pushing the bill forward.

"This bill would drastically increase EI rates as people would qualify for incredibly generous benefits after only nine weeks of full-time work," said Kelly. "Not only would this encourage abuse of the EI system and make it harder for businesses to hire skilled workers, it would also add enormous cost pressures to a system that is already in massive deficit. It's totally irresponsible of them to even be debating a measure like that at this time."

Without accounting for the added costs associated with C-308, Employment Insurance premiums are set to rise by their maximum allowable amount in 2011, and will likely continue rising until 2014. According to CFIB's calculations, these payroll tax increases could result in as many as 170,000 lost jobs.

"We have been worrying about maximum premium increases for the next three or four years," added Kelly. "If a bill like this passes, we will be talking about maximum EI rate increases for a decade or more. It's time our Members of Parliament stopped playing games with the EI Act and got serious about the real issue at hand, before payroll tax increases choke our economy."

As Canada's largest association of small- and medium-sized businesses, CFIB is Powered by Entrepreneurs™. Established in 1971, CFIB takes direction from more than 107,000 members in every sector nationwide, giving independent business a strong and influential voice at all levels of government and helping to grow the economy.

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To arrange an interview with Dan Kelly, please contact Adam Miller or Meghan Carrington at 416-222-8022 or via[email protected]