Lobster fishermen have asked the government to allow them to use last year’s earnings to calculate their Employment Insurance benefits this year. Unfortunately the federal Human Resources Minister Diane Finley has rejected the call. As per the industry leaders the lobster fishermen are not going to have enough income to pay their debts or to live on as they struggle with record low prices that barely exceed the cost of fishing.
Finley explained that the EI system is very generous towards the Atlantic fishers and will continue as it is now. She further told that the authority is very well aware of the challenges facing the Atlantic lobster fishers right now. She exclaimed that the main focus of the government’s response will be the $65-million, five-year aid package Fisheries Minister Gail Shea announced earlier this week.
Fishermens’ groups are still unaware about the details of the $15 million Shea allocated for short-term income support this season. According to the president of the Maritimes Fishermen’s Union many fishermen would not qualify for this benefit. André Martin said the requirement that a fisherman’s income drop 25 percent since 2008 to qualify “didn’t make sense.
It is said that the fishermen qualify for EI based on their earnings, not hours worked. NDP fisheries critic Peter Stoffer, a Nova Scotia MP, called Finley’s rejection of that idea “absolutely incredible. He added that they have asked this for one year only as a temporary measure. Liberal fisheries critic Gerry Byrne was scornful that the Conservatives had not even unveiled a pilot project as a temporary response to the crisis in incomes.
It is told that tens of thousands of Canadians have lost manufacturing jobs that are gone forever and “those people have been paying into EI for 10, 20 years. They are not pleased at the thought that someone who has worked for 45 days can get the same benefits.
