Good afternoon and thank you, Chair and committee members, for the opportunity to present to you today.
The Canadian Labour Congress, as most of you know, is the largest central labour body in the country. It brings together some 50 national and international unions in Canada as well as some 12 provincial and territorial federations of labour, along with 100 labour councils across the country.
The CLC advocates on national issues on behalf of some three million workers, men and women from coast to coast.
The coronavirus pandemic and the economic shutdown continue to devastate hundreds of thousands of working people's lives. Yesterday's budget, I think, brings important relief for working people hard hit by the pandemic. It does so in several ways.
First, the extension of the Canada emergency wage subsidy will continue to support employment into the fall of 2021. Second, the Canada recovery hiring program will promote job creation and support underemployed workers seeking additional hours of work in the second half of the year.
We hope the hiring program is further refined to provide targeted support for workers who are often overlooked in a job recovery. These include displaced workers, workers with disabilities and the long-term unemployed. Additional job training incentives would be combined with the hiring subsidy to increase the take-up rate.
Third, the extension of the recovery benefits and the temporary employment insurance measure recognize the reality of the third wave of COVID-19 infections in Canada. The emergency income support benefit continues to be essential for working people during the ongoing public health crisis.
From the beginning, the employment insurance program was not equipped, of course, to handle the extraordinary spike in unemployment. The unprecedented scale of job losses simply overwhelmed the EI system. A simplified unemployment benefit that allowed an automated claims process was needed. The government and federal public service workers quickly designed and implemented the Canada emergency response benefit, or CERB, to cope with the wave of layoffs.
The EI system was unable to cope with the scale of the crisis, but not just because of the outdated technology and a rigid administrative system. The EI program has also been severely eroded over decades. Eligibility restrictions shut out workers in part-time and non-standard work arrangements. This was especially the case for women, youth and racialized workers. These workers were the hardest hit by the economic shock of the pandemic. Going forward, we must address the long-standing weaknesses in the EI program.
We are pleased that yesterday's budget announced a forthcoming consultation on long-term EI reforms. In our view, the most important task is to expand access and increase the benefit levels. This is essential in reducing inequality and job market precarity. Improving access to EI and increasing benefit levels will also encourage employers to improve job quality. Extending the maximum duration of benefits will also improve the quality of job matches.
In our view, a comprehensive, open and participatory review of the EI program is long overdue. This review should include a careful examination of the management of the EI account and the program of long-term financing challenges.
Even more importantly, it is time to restore direct federal government funding to EI. For most of the program's history, the federal government contributed a significant portion of the program's cost. In the 1990s, the government withdrew entirely from paying into the EI program. It is time to return to truly tripartite funding for employment insurance.
This could be done by ensuring that federal government funding is tied to the incentive of achieving and maintaining full employment. Below a certain level of unemployment threshold, say 4%, employer and employee premiums could bear the full cost of benefits. Beyond 4%, the federal government should be obliged to defray the cost of benefits stemming from the unusually high unemployment. This would acknowledge the government's primary responsibility in stabilizing the economy and eliminating unemployment.
With that, I will end my remarks and welcome any questions, both to me and my colleague, Chris Roberts. Thank you very much.