Last weekend marked a water- shed point for Canada’s unemploy- ment insurance system — people who filed claims Nov. 19 did so under a completely different set of tules than those who. filed the previous Friday, The New. Un- employment. Insurance Act has become Jaw. The government's objective in changing the act is to save what they estimate as $800 million annually by tightening the qualifi- cation rules and shortening the length of time benefits are paid, and then apply the savings to a series of new programs designed to put people back into employment or retrain them for new careers. In January of this year people wanting to renew unemployment insurance claims in Terrace found that they needed 14 weeks of work instead of the usual 10 weeks to qualify for another period of bene- fits. In many’ cases those who qualified found that the duration of - their renewed claims were shorter. Pogey was harder to get, and those who got it didn’t get as much of it. The tougher rules anticipated legislation that hadn’t become law at the time. The federal govern- ment decided not to reriew the variable entrance amendment to the Unemployment Insurance Act, the section that allowed different regions of the country to adjust the claim requirements according the rate of unemployment in the local workforce. But the new legislation got hung up in the Senate and was subjected to a jengthy round of public hear- ings’ and: committee referrals. In the mean time, the interim qualify- ing rules in Terrace remained the ‘same:and. the system went into a ‘waiting period. That waiting was — over —- in some senses — Nov. 18, when the new Act came into effect, In an interview during: the week ‘of Nov.-4 Terrace Canada Employ- ment Centre assistant manager explained that the period of work required to get benefits will be adjusted each week according to the rate of unemployment cal- culated and averaged over the previous several weeks. The rate is determined by Regional Economic _ Services, a branch of the Ministry of Employment and Immigration. Their calculations include people - who are out of work and drawing forms of social assistance other than UI, Gallamore said, which means their figures for unemploy- ment will be higher than those issued by Statistics. Canada, The ‘Terrace rate is that of Economic Region 61, which takes _ in all of British Columbia. north of Wiliams Lake. Gallamore said the rate for the week of Nov. 4 was 12.9 percent, and he estimated the rate for the following week would come in around 13.6 percent. Using a table issued by CEIC he showed that in areas having a rate between 13 and 14 percent, workers wanting to renew an existing claim would Lf you wish fo aunounce thanks to Dr. Hospital. . Joan. i ~ Wee < Se ae the birth of YOUR baby, please fi lo out the form available in the maternity ward at Mills Memoriat Flospital, We will pick up your forms every week, CLINE — Nathalie and Russell are the proud parents of Charity Leanne, born Nov. 13, 1990. She weighed 6 lbs. 13 02. HOBACK — Kelli and Pam are proud to announce the birth of their twins, son Kodi (6 Ibs. 4 oz.) at 7:45 p.m. and daughter Kassi (4 Ibs. 14 oz.) at 8:20 p.m. on Nov. 6, 1990. LEISINGER — Michael and Barbara are happy to announce the birth of their first child Matthew Alexander who was born on Oct, 24, 1990 at 3:24 p.m. He weighed 7 Ibs. 3 oz. Many Sharon Lee and the staff of labour and delivery, maternity and the nursery at Mills Memorial : WIENS — Glen and Natalie Wiens are ‘‘intensely’’ pleased to announce the arrival of their first baby Abby Melena Wiens. She weighed 8 lbs. 1] oz. and came to us at 4:25 p.m. Nov. 16, 1990. Special thanks to Doctor Hoy, Donna, Sheila and FLOWERS AL LA CAIRT 5 ‘SKEENA MALL “EXPECT THE EXTRAORDINARY” WE DELIVER 635-4080 - ee 12 - 4741 LAKELSE, TERRACE After Store Hours 638-1954 / Telex 04785549 TERRACE FLOWERS A LA CARTE LTD. “need 12 weeks of insured employ- ment to qualify for 35 weeks of benefits. To get the maximum of 50 weeks of benefits, a claimant would. need to have worked 29 weeks, Under the old system — before January. 1990 — 10 weeks of work. would have renewed a 50-week claim. . Gallamore noted that it still takes 20 weeks of insured work to estab- lish a new claim. He added that - there is a special . exception for. people in the fishing industry, who can still qualify for claim renewal with 10 weeks of work for 29 weeks of benefits. : The sliding.scale system used to. calculate benefit periods and quali- fications will strongly discourage workers from moving out of areas” with low unemployment rates to areas where there are worse shor- tages of work, Callamore pre- dicted. Shirley Kimery, manager of the Terrace CHIC office, said the tougher qualifications in the new " system aimed at workers who tend to go from short periods of work to living on pagey, quitting jobs frequently without justification. For unemployment claimants who are determined to have quit work. _ without good cause, the minimum penalty will now be seven weeks, and when the benefits. begin they will be paid out at 50 percent of “the normal rate for the entire period of the claim. "The. deterrent factor is strong," Kimery said. "It will make people, think twice before they quit" . The “positive side of the new system is. what the government says it’s going to do with the savings from paying out less in ane "There are social bene- " Kimery said. "It makes it meh more clearly an insurance - pfogram. The person who is un- employed is now our major client." Kimery hopes the flexibility and resources being committed under the new'scheme will help solve the . problem of repeat clients for the unemployment insurance system. "We will probably be able to offer more help to people who want training. That has been viewed as a provincial responsibility, but we should be able to help, for’ example, people with literacy problems, They’re at the core of the repeat unemployment insurance client problem." There may be options: never offered ‘before: capitalization of benefits (drawing a whole claim or part of it in a lump sum rather than weekly payments), going ‘to. ‘school for up to three years while drawing benefits, and expanded forms of self-employment initia- tives. Gallamore believes claimants will choose the training options because the benefits are far more generous than drawing straight UI. A new work-sharing scheme is also available with CEIC assis- — tance. Employers and employees who jointly agree on a work-shar- ing arrangement to prevent layoffs can arrange for workers to draw unemployment benefits as compen- sation for days that they voluntar- ily stay off work. Gallamore said it reduces the net demand on the UI system and allows employers to. keep skilled workers on their staffs during periods of ‘economic trouble: Other features of the new Act are more flexible maternity. and parental leave options and the option for workers over 65 years old to continue paying into the system and drawing benefits.