He made the comment Friday while in his Central Nova riding.
The decision to make the changes was made because the current program “was failing,” MacKay said.
And the reforms are about connecting people to jobs and ensuring employers “are able to connect with people who genuinely want to get back to work.”
But if MacKay did talk to industry representatives, someone forgot to tell the federal department responsible for the EI changes.
Senior Human Resources staff said the details of the new EI rules were not discussed with employees or employers before they were announced, and were instead designed around “international best practices.”
However, a spokeswoman for Human Resources Minister Diane Finley said that while there was no consultation around the specific EI changes, the government had been gathering feedback as it prepared the budget.
Introduced earlier this week, the changes place people in one of three categories based on the number of times they’ve accessed employment insurance in a given time period. Frequent, occasional, and long-tenured claimants have varying periods in which they must seek new work in their field before being required to take a “suitable job” that pays at least 70 per cent of their previous employment.
“It’s suitable work within their skill set, within their education, within their ability and within their local community,” MacKay said.
Representatives from the fishing, farming and business sectors have expressed concern about what the changes could mean for their respective industries. But MacKay said he’s heard from a number of companies who are pleased with the new approach.
The government has also heard concerns from industries that have to bring in foreign workers to help maintain operations in agriculture, food services and other industries, he said.
“They’re bringing in skilled workers when we have a 15 per cent unemployment rate,” he said. “You tell me how to make sense of that. How do we square that circle when we have high unemployment and people who are saying they can’t get work and (employers) who say they can’t get workers? That doesn’t make sense to me.”
The minister bristled at the suggestion the plan should have been explained all at once, rather than being trickled out in pieces following the release of the budget.
“What I expect and would like is to see full, objective reporting of what the actual facts on these changes are,” he said.
Seasonal workers aren’t being targeted or stigmatized with this plan and the changes should help people such as fishermen find suitable work during the off-season, MacKay said.
The term “suitable work” has caused some consternation as people wonder if they’d be shuffled into the first available job. But MacKay said that’s not the case and elaborated when pressed to explain what he would tell someone who asks about the definition.
“If somebody comes to our office and says, ‘What constitutes suitable work for me as a fisherman? … I have my ability to drive a truck. I’ve worked as a carpenter in the past. I have worked in other industries, these are the tickets and the professional skill set that I have. What work is available within this particular area that would constitute suitable work?’
“We can look at their resume very quickly … and say, ‘Well, we happen to have a truck driving job or … somebody is in fact looking for a person with your skill set, we’ll connect you.’
“That’s what this program is designed to do. It’s designed to put people who have skills, that are ready to go to work, into a position where they can earn a living.”
MacKay said he hopes the changes will cut down the outflow of people from provinces such as Nova Scotia in search for work.
“We want to try to improve the system that gives them the maximum opportunity to work locally and to encourage them to do so.”
In Halifax Friday, Premier Darrell Dexter said the EI changes and their impact on seasonal workers follow federal announcements of cuts to community Internet access sites and regional development agencies as measures bound to hurt rural Nova Scotia and other rural parts of the country.
“These are significant and troubling announcements by a federal government who doesn’t seem to really understand what it will mean for those rural communities,” Dexter said.
He said it seems the federal government has a “misunderstanding of rural Canada, which I find astounding, really, since the Conservative base traditionally has been rooted in speaking up for rural communities.
“This goes in the opposite direction, no matter where you are in the country.”
Dexter said rural Nova Scotia, like other rural parts of the country, has seen a period of depopulation. The reasons for that are complex, he said, but if a rural resident’s income security is reduced, they’ll leave.
Liberal MLA Kelly Regan said the reforms will “gut rural communities” and called on provincial Progressive Conservatives to speak out against their federal counterparts’ “attack” on Atlantic Canada.
Provincial Tory Leader Jamie Baillie said there’s been a lot of politics played with changes since they were announced Thursday.
“It’s important that the federal government get all the information out — the good and the bad — so that people’s anxiety levels can go down and we can digest what it means,” Baillie said.
He said he’d also advise Ottawa to go slow and take regional interests into account.
Original Article
Source: the chronicle herald
Author: MICHAEL GORMAN and DAVID JACKSON
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