Canada - Next Federal Gov't?

[Erik Malmsten]

Re: Canada - Next Federal Gov't?

The next election won't be won by political ideology. The core voters will always be there maybe 20% Conservative, 16% Liberal, 12% NDP. Non-political people will have to get so fed up with dictator Harper as to vote for a change, be it Liberal or NDP. Unfortunately, there might have to be a natural disaster from environmental deregulation. One party has to sweep Ontario and Quebec. When the "right" was split between Reform and PC, the Liberals won. Now the "left" is split, so it will be much harder to unseat Harper.

The federal tories are following the path of Mike Harris by starting their majority with one gigantic bill containing many little nasty ideological agendas. The public in Ontario then wasn't outraged about the undemocratic nature of pushing through legislation and reelected them. There were, however, some problems such as deaths from cutting water regulations and forcing local municipal governments together and passing on the costs of programs to municipalities [the passing down started by the federal Liberals]. And despite the downloading of expenses the deficit wasn't reduced, just taxes were. The $50,000,000 hole that got filled in for the subway to the airport is now being redug for the new streetcar line. The federal tories have their own money pits such as new military vehicles.

As for EI I thought that it was Insurance paid for by employers and employees, not from taxes --It's not a government hand-out program. It should be run as a service, quickly giving people their first cheque and emailling suitable jobs without threats.

It's interesting that 2 previous tory fishing ministers are against the changes being forced through.

The raising of the age of retirement to 67 will scare some, but many Conservative voters are already 65.

[Gary Ruben]

Re: Canada - Next Federal Gov't?

The raising of the age of retirement to 67 will scare some, but many Conservative voters are already 65.

I thought they were raising the age at which a person will be able to collect full OAS and the supplement, if a person qualifies for the supplement. Canada Pension, for the full pension, to remain at 65.

The way I see it, raising the age is more in line with the increasing life expectancy these days.

A person can retire at any age. They need not work at all if they don't want. But they will have to wait until 67 to collect those entitlements.

If a political party wants to make it an issue in the next election and move the age back to 65 there is no reason that can't be done.

[Jonathan Berry]

Re: Canada - Next Federal Gov't?

With Bob Rae as leader [oops ...

Strategic dynamism.

Next, he'll be predicting global climate change. Oy vey.

Incidentally, David Attenborough has changed his mind about anthropogenic climate change. Before, he was a denier (or at least a skeptic), now he's pretty much convinced. I didn't follow any of the chesstalk threads on that subject, but I do have a question. Did the chesstalk debate occasion any person who posted in the threads to change their mind? A "no" answer would say more about chess players than it would about climate.

I much preferred Erik's analysis.

[Gary Ruben]

Re: Canada - Next Federal Gov't?

Did the chesstalk debate occasion any person who posted in the threads to change their mind?

The climate change group all defended their position like Dr. Euwe defended the French Winawar against Alekhine.

Unlike Anand - Gelfand, it was entertaining. :)

BTW, Bob Rae did not say (as far as I know) he would not accept a draft.

[Jordan S. Berson]

Re: Canada - Next Federal Gov't?

As for EI I thought that it was Insurance paid for by employers and employees, not from taxes --It's not a government hand-out program. It should be run as a service, quickly giving people their first cheque and emailling suitable jobs without threats.

Hi Erik,

Employment Insurance is insurance, however since it is managed by Service Canada, it works differently than private insurance companies.

Private insurance companies must have a lot of capital in order to operate. The only capital base that Service Canada can access, other than from premiums paid, would be the federal tax pool.

The EI premiums that workers and employers pay don't cover all of the services that the Government of Canada pay to and for unemployed and underemployed workers. The premiums are not calculated to generate profits, unlike private sector insurance companies. Otherwise, EI premiums would be much higher.

80% of EI claims are processed within 28 days. Many claims are processed within one business day of all of the documents being registered to the claim.

Service Canada does not e-mail job opportunities to EI claimants. Anyone can register on http://jobs.gc.ca or other public or private job search engines in order to receive automated e-mail alerts for suitable jobs in their area. At the end of the Internet bi-weekly EI reports, there is generally a message with some local jobs available.

Not sure what you meant by "...without threats." That's the only part of your message that I don't understand. Please clarify.

Thanks, Jordan

[Zeljko Kitich]

Re: Canada - Next Federal Gov't?

Hi Erik,

Employment Insurance is insurance, however since it is managed by Service Canada, it works differently than private insurance companies.

Private insurance companies must have a lot of capital in order to operate. The only capital base that Service Canada can access, other than from premiums paid, would be the federal tax pool.

The EI premiums that workers and employers pay don't cover all of the services that the Government of Canada pay to and for unemployed and underemployed workers. The premiums are not calculated to generate profits, unlike private sector insurance companies. Otherwise, EI premiums would be much higher.

80% of EI claims are processed within 28 days. Many claims are processed within one business day of all of the documents being registered to the claim.

Service Canada does not e-mail job opportunities to EI claimants. Anyone can register on http://jobs.gc.ca or other public or private job search engines in order to receive automated e-mail alerts for suitable jobs in their area. At the end of the Internet bi-weekly EI reports, there is generally a message with some local jobs available.

Not sure what you meant by "...without threats." That's the only part of your message that I don't understand. Please clarify.

Thanks, Jordan

EI has a huge surplus, the surplus has been growing and growing as the program has been curtailed in what it offers the premium payers.

As a former OW worker I've lost track of the number of EIB claimants that had to come to us first because EIB was taking much more than a day to process their claim even though everything had been submitted to EIB. I know everything was submitted because we used to have rights to check their EIB file.

Because it took EIB so long to process claims, these people applying for OW were placed in a hard spot because OW would be reimbursed in full from their first EIB payments. This was the only way that EIB would proceed to reimburde OW. So they were basically in a position of wait the 6 weeks or more now or wait for them as soon as EIB came into pay because the funds were redirected to OW.

OW can be very quickly granted if all the information is brought in. EIB asks for far less information than OW but takes a lot longer to grant. I never understood why that was.

[Jordan S. Berson]

Re: Canada - Next Federal Gov't?

Zeljko,

Not all of the information is submitted by the claimant. The employer must submit a Record of Employment (ROE), and even though the ROE may already be on file, it could have errors that need to be corrected, or the claimant may have had a contentious reason for separation that needs to be reviewed with both the claimant and employer.

Also, the claimant may have submitted other information which may be subject to review. For example, the claimant may be related to the employer; the claimant may be taking a full-time training course or have other availability issues; the claimant may be self-employed outside of regular work; the claimant may have other previously-undisclosed issues that may need to be reviewed; etc. These are all things that Ontario Works would not necessarily have access to through WebAOBLink.

The "huge surplus" is rapidly shrinking due to the increase in claims, increase in services provided, and decrease in contributions since 2008. If it continues to shrink at its current pace, it will be gone by 2015 or so. Right now it's less than half of what it was four years ago.

Jordan

[Zeljko Kitich]

Re: Canada - Next Federal Gov't?

Zeljko,

Not all of the information is submitted by the claimant. The employer must submit a Record of Employment (ROE), and even though the ROE may already be on file, it could have errors that need to be corrected, or the claimant may have had a contentious reason for separation that needs to be reviewed with both the claimant and employer.

Also, the claimant may have submitted other information which may be subject to review. For example, the claimant may be related to the employer; the claimant may be taking a full-time training course or have other availability issues; the claimant may be self-employed outside of regular work; the claimant may have other previously-undisclosed issues that may need to be reviewed; etc. These are all things that Ontario Works would not necessarily have access to through WebAOBLink.

The "huge surplus" is rapidly shrinking due to the increase in claims, increase in services provided, and decrease in contributions since 2008. If it continues to shrink at its current pace, it will be gone by 2015 or so. Right now it's less than half of what it was four years ago.

Jordan

I am aware of all those issues. And yes we had access to all of that information at OW as our continued issuance of OW depended on the status of the EIB claim and whether the delay was within or not within the clients control. You will find that 99% of employers do issue the ROE on time, especially as they can be in difficulty with EIB if they do not. We were always well versed in what was happening with a clients EIB claim. Unlike say WSIB where we were not very well versed.

The surplus is still very much a surplus.

OW asks for many more items and information than EIB ever does as OW is needs based and EIB is not. Like bank records, vehicle ownerships, rent or mortgage documents, ROEs, RSPs and we still smoked EIB in our response time to grant cases.

[Zeljko Kitich]

Re: Canada - Next Federal Gov't?

Or maybe we are both wrong and the surplus is all gone. However, since the federal government has siphoned off the surplus in years past to pay down the national debt then it's no surprise that they may have to put some of that money back into the program it was intended for and which once had a 57 billion surplus. http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/stor...weston-ei.html

[Jordan S. Berson]

Re: Canada - Next Federal Gov't?

You will find that 99% of employers do issue the ROE on time, especially as they can be in difficulty with EIB if they do not.

Zeljko,

I'm surprised that you would make a statistical statement like that. Late ROE's account for a lot more than 1% of claim delays, and mostly due to employer delays. Then there is a percentage of ROE's that have errors on them, and it could take days to get them resolved. Also, it is extremely rare when Service Canada will fine an employer for these kinds of issues, so employers are far less compliant than you think.

Jordan

[Zeljko Kitich]

Re: Canada - Next Federal Gov't?

Zeljko,

I'm surprised that you would make a statistical statement like that. Late ROE's account for a lot more than 1% of claim delays, and mostly due to employer delays. Then there is a percentage of ROE's that have errors on them, and it could take days to get them resolved. Also, it is extremely rare when Service Canada will fine an employer for these kinds of issues, so employers are far less compliant than you think.

Jordan

If you have an actual figure I'd be interested in what it is. But okay let's assume that 5% of employers are competent enough to produce a correctly calculated payroll and submit the payroll deductions to Revenue Canada on time (because CRA is very quick to fine those that try to finance themselves by delaying the submission of payroll deductions). That still does not explain the long processing period for the vast majority of EIB claims.

[Jordan S. Berson]

Re: Canada - Next Federal Gov't?

If you have an actual figure I'd be interested in what it is. But okay let's assume that 5% of employers are competent enough to produce a correctly calculated payroll and submit the payroll deductions to Revenue Canada on time (because CRA is very quick to fine those that try to finance themselves by delaying the submission of payroll deductions). That still does not explain the long processing period for the vast majority of EIB claims.

Zeljko,

I have already outlined a number of reasons that processing can go beyond 28 days. The backlogs are a lot smaller these days due to a number of automated processes being added in recent months, and a group of specialised agents are now available on the phone to do some of the calculations while the claimant waits.

Jordan

[Paul Beckwith]

Re: Canada - Next Federal Gov't?

This thread is pointless. It is obvious that there will never be a "next federal government" since the way Dear Leader is heading he will abolish elections claiming that there is only one party suitable to govern Canada.

[Erik Malmsten]

Re: Canada - Next Federal Gov't?

Hi Erik,

80% of EI claims are processed within 28 days. Many claims are processed within one business day of all of the documents being registered to the claim.

Not sure what you meant by "...without threats." That's the only part of your message that I don't understand. Please clarify.

Thanks, Jordan

My recent headaches with EI is that the bureaucracy is there to find a reason to NOT pay you, when I think the default should be to pay first. They can always reclaim any overpaymens on my tax form.
1) they can't process your claim because I worked 4 days for a small employer with no separation paper, despite having separation papers for the previous 300 days of work. Honesty is punished.
2) I was cut-off because I didn't attend a training meeting on how to write a resume because I was was working and phoned in and left a message that I couldn't attend because I was working. Another month without payments to sort that out.

So the last time I was seasonally unemployed I didn't even bother to apply, just lived off of my savings.

The threats are in the new proposal to take any job:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/stor...ei-finley.html

[Jordan S. Berson]

Re: Canada - Next Federal Gov't?

My recent headaches with EI is that the bureaucracy is there to find a reason to NOT pay you, when I think the default should be to pay first. They can always reclaim any overpaymens on my tax form.

Erik,

Sorry, but your understanding of the back end of things is entirely incorrect.

Service Canada's mandate is to find all reasonable methods to pay claims, and all Citizen Service Officers are required to assume that a claimant is payable until otherwise determined.

While it is also a mandate to avoid overpayments wherever possible, until all of the information is received to be able to finalize a claim, there cannot be any payments. That has nothing to do with avoiding overpayments, however. It has to do with file integrity. Service Canada cannot process your claim if you have a missing ROE because without it, there is no way of knowing how many hours you worked, how much you earned, and what reason you stopped working, amongst other important matters.

1) they can't process your claim because I worked 4 days for a small employer with no separation paper, despite having separation papers for the previous 300 days of work. Honesty is punished.

Honesty is not punished, however dishonety is punished. If your ROE came in later, and Service Canada found out that you quit a job or were dismissed and failed to declare it on your application, you could be required to reimburse all payments received plus a 50% penalty, plus you would need more hours to qualify on your next two claims or for up to five years.

All you have to do is request an ROE from the employer, and if they refuse to give you one, then contact Service Canada and they will get it from the employer.

2) I was cut-off because I didn't attend a training meeting on how to write a resume because I was was working and phoned in and left a message that I couldn't attend because I was working. Another month without payments to sort that out.

I cannot explain why that happened, other than you left a message and the person may not have had your SIN or maybe they were out of the office on vacation. Normally, if you call the number on the General Information Session (GIS) invitation and speak to an agent, the agent will note it to file and there would be no stop on your benefits.

Also, the GIS meetings are not about how to write résumés, it's about how EI works, about job searching, and there is some small aspect of writing résumés. Those sessions are very important because it also gives you an opportunity to submit your job search history.

So the last time I was seasonally unemployed I didn't even bother to apply, just lived off of my savings.

That's your choice, but certainly not one that I would recommend. If you were to understand things a little better, it might help you to make more informative decisions.

The threats are in the new proposal to take any job:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/stor...ei-finley.html

That's a lot of media hype. Sorry, but until there are actual changes that are published, there's nothing different about job search requirements.

Jordan