Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is defending leaving the Edmonton region out of extended employment insurance benefits. Speaking in the city today, he says it all comes down to cold, hard mathematics.
“If there was politics brought in to this we might have made other choices. The fact is, we can be reassured that we’re making decisions based on evidence and not on popularity or political convenience. That’s what Canadians expect of this government; we are continuing to base our decisions on evidence and facts.”
In order to qualify, each EI region had to see a two per cent jump in its unemployment rate. Edmonton has gone up 1.8 per cent to 6.5.
The fact that many people from the area work in harder hit regions was brought up during his visit, but Trudeau argues changes like shortening wait times will affect all Canadians.
“We have folks returning to Cape Breton, you have folks returning to different parts of the country including B.C. who are struggling as they are looking for work. Our heart goes out to all families across this country who are facing real challenges with the crisis that the falling oil prices have led to.”
Alberta is divided into four EI regions and the changes impact three of them. In 12 of the hardest hit areas of the country, claims can now be made for a maximum of 50 weeks, which is five more than before.