REGINA – Canada’s premiers are discussing the contentious issues of employment insurance at their annual meeting in Regina.
The western premiers want the current 58 EI regions, each with different thresholds to qualify for EI, reduced to just three.
British Columbia’s Gordon Campbell says it would treat all Canadians fairly, offering different levels of support based only on whether the recipient lives in an urban, rural or remote area.
But Ontario’s Dalton McGuinty wants just one threshold across the country.
Campbell says the premiers want to come up with a common plan that they could put to the federal government, which runs the program.
But the western premiers’ proposal may run into opposition – a federal analysis obtained by The Canadian Press says there could be more losers than winners under the scheme.
