Affordable Housing Access in Canada
The Canadian Federal Government is re-jigging employment insurance in an omnibus budget bill C-38.
In this legislation they are pressuring frequent users to stop depending on the program as a yearly source of income and requiring those who rarely use it to be more aggressive when they do look for new jobs when they do collect EI.
The government believes being a seasonal worker is not an acceptable reason for turning down available jobs. The Opposition said the Harper Government is being too heavy-handed with unemployed Canadians who have little history of EI use.
The bill requires at least seven years of work experience before one can get EI. What the bill failed to omit were chronically unemployed Canadians. For example, a lot of teenagers, those in their 20’s to 50’s are able bodied but chronically unemployed. In fact university students with multiple degrees or MBA’s are working counter help jobs in Toronto, or not working at all. I have come to know some people who make money searching through homeowner trash, repairing household items, and these goods are sold online for a profit, all part of the flourishing, underground economy. What the government should include to C-38 is Affordable Housing.
For example, if a lot of jobs are unfilled in Alberta, the government should supply transportation costs and affordable house to allow able bodied people to relocate to Alberta to work in jobs that go unfilled. Affordable House should be not just available to single mothers who have children through several fathers. Affordable Housing should be available to able bodied workers who would love to relocate to Alberta, not remain unemployed, or chronically unemployed, in a major city like Toronto, or Montreal, where their talents and skills would be needed elsewhere.