; a aan eoragat ‘ + f] + ' ' ’ 4 TOCPeP EERE SESE SERA RS RES ES oe oe EMPLOYMENT NSURANCE Part-timers are winners, repeat users are the losers in brave new UI world EPEAT APPLICANTS for un- © employment insurance won't collect as much as first timers under planned changes to the system. And more people who do collect will have to repay what they receive later on. These and other changes are contained in 2 the latest federal government plan to tighten = Up on benefits and cut costs. The changes are also being accompanied by a new name. “I’s employment insurance, not unem- ployment insurance,” says Shirley : Kimery’s who is in charge of the area’s fed- | * eral human resources centre (the new name - of Canada Employment Centres.) The biggest change coming is climinating ' weeks of work in calculating insurance ‘ benefits. t ‘mean transfers of job positions ~ Instead, benefits will be calculated by the number of hours a person works. In general, a person will need at least 910 hours of work to qualify, said Kimery. “In effect, this works out to 26 weeks at 35 hours a week,’’ she noted. That’s a jump in the qualifying time from the current provisions where a person has to work between 12 and 20 weeks depending Jobs flow here from Ul cuts TERRACE COULD benefit by up to eight jobs this spring once the federal government central- izes its unemployment insurance services here. Files from Smithers and area, north of us and Kitimat are al- ready being, handled, herg, with.., Prince Rupert:io followaean. a7 It’s the’ latter move ‘that'll to the “federal employment centre here, says manager Shir- ley Kimery, There are now 32 positions at the employment centre, making for a possible 40 once it as- sumes all of the Prince Rupert unemployment insurance files, But Kimery. warned that not all of the new positions may be filled. *‘There’s going to be another budgel speech in February and there could be more news about cutbacks,”’ she said. Kimery said she always tries to have a some surplus positions available to absorb any impacts arising from cuts. “As it is, federal employment centres are turning more and more toward technology to re- vs upon their area’s unemployment rate, ‘This hourly provision means that people ._ who work less than 15 hours a week will become eligible to collect benefits. “Some people may hold two or-thrce part lime jobs, in effect working full time but “without being able to have those: hours counted for benefits,’ said Kimery of the current system. Even though the number of people who can callect may expand, the percentage rate The one piece of good “news is that there will be modesi cuts to what employ- ees and workers have to pay into the insurance account. of what they might collect is dropping ta 50 per cent from $5 per cent. ‘But there will be a top up for people an low income. That’s for pcople who make less than $26,000 a year and the top up will be a minimum $50 a week,”’ she said. For those who can collect the maximum each week, this amount. is dropping from SvTaNoe ONE _walgull ayet bate naeh nant EVER SOQ SLOWLY employment centres are convertin 11 to user- friendly computers for members of the public. It cuts down on paper work and speeds up the system, That's Davina Brodeur, an employment centre officer, demonstrating a new system for filling out unemployment insurance forms. Next up will be the ability to fill out insurance report card information using the keypad of a touch-tone phone. the current $447 to $412.50." Those who earn more than $42,000 a year _now have to pay back benefits later on. Un- der the proposed changes, this figure will drop to $39,000. “Those with employment insurance [iles will find them ever more clasely connected to Revenue Canada for the income claw- backs and for low income top ups, Repeat collecters will find their benefit ratc drop when they file more than one claim over a five-year period. And the length of time anybody can claim will be cut from 50 weeks to 45 weeks, “The point of all this is that we’re going to provide employment insurance,’’ said. Kimery. The one piece of good news is that there will be modest cuts to what employees and workers have to pay into the insurance ac- count, Any savings generated will be tumed back into employment programs. These include a top up of up to $3,000 for a person who has lost a high paying job and who has found one that pays less. Also coming are variations of existing or past programs which will pay participants up to $5,000 for short term work projects. place human beings. The local centre escaped the worst of cuts announced last year, But its Kitimat outlet is being closed. kkkkk Those who collect unemploy- ment insurance will soon be able to file their information by using a touch tone phone. Ti’ll mean an end to the days of having to mail in reporting cards every two weeks. ‘Local employment centre manager Shirley Kimery ex- pects the new service to be in areas.”’ What By CRIS LEYKAUF A NEW EMPLOYMENT office in New Aiyaush which just opened last spring Is already slated to shut down. The Employment and Training Centre opened last April, under the direction of the Skeena Aboriginal Management Board, It operates as a branch of the Canada Employment Centre. The decision was made to open a separate employment office in the Nass for a variety of reasons, - “One problem the CEC discovered is thal a lot of people who need the service don’t have thelr own vehicles,”’ said Eric Grandison, the employment and training officer with the Nass office. Another issue was that businesses which -warited-to hire people from the Nass weren't sure how to advertise those positions. “A lot of non-native organizations aren’ that familiar with marketing or advertising in remote place by summer. Access to the phone-in filing system will most likely be via a 1-800 toll-free number, she said. “This way itl! be in the sys- tem right away,’’ “Ivll be a big assistance to people who live in more remote Even now there is access to unemployment quiries via the telephone. Kimery, is an expansion of that service to handle the report card filing sequence, said Kimery. Fewer on the dole EVEN WITHOUT planned cuts in unemployment insurance, fewer British Colunibians are collecting pogey. Statistics indicate $2,000 British Columbians as of September 1995, down by 12.7 per cent over the previous year, That works out to 21.7 people for every 1,000 population. All told, Canadians received $10.7 billion In regular and special insurance in- could happen, said native communities,’ said Grandison. ‘We don’t get TK radio signals up here, or the local tv station,” , The employment agency was designed to serve the entire Nass Valicy, including Canyon City, Greenville and Kincolith, as well as New Aiyansh, That’s a total of nearly 2,000 people, The unemployment rate in the four villages is very high — an average of 68.8 per cent, rang- ing from a low of 61 per cent to a high of 81,7 per cent in Greenville. As well as offering assistance in finding jobs, Grandison can also help people. put. together resumes and covering ‘letters, and coach them for job interviews. But money for the employment centre will run out.at the end of March. Then the government will likely put in an electronic kiosk for people searching for-work. “A kiosk is not the answer,” said Clarence Nyce, who heads up the Skeena Aboriginal unemployment i insurance benefits in the first nine months of 1995, down from $12.26 billion during the same period of 1994, But even though there was a yearly decline in the number of Brit- ish Columbians receiving UI, the number did rise from August to September by 0.8 per cent. Quebec remains the province with the highest number of claimants at 253,000. dians who do receive benefits. _ New Nass job centre chopped That's approximately one-third of all Cana- Management Board, Without an employment centre office in the Nass, it will be even more difficult to deal with the high unemployment in the region, he said, “No while government is going to go up there, wave a magic wand and create jobs,”’ said Nyce. The Nass employment office is not the only remote office which will be shutting down. An- other office in Iskit in the Stikine Valley which also just opened will close as well, And two other offices which have been open approximately ten years — one on lhe Char- lottes and onc in Hazelton, will also be shutting down. “Tl know we have to address the state of the union,’’ sald Nyce, ‘‘but people don’t realize what the impacts of these culs will be. ‘T's a syslematic offloading of responsibilily that is conveniently hidden under the process of fiscal restraint,”’ he said. ‘It's maddenlng,’’ The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, January 31, 1996 - AS ST A CORRESPONDENCE FOR THE TERRACE STANDARD The Mail Bag From the other side Dear Sir: Tam responding to the Two Solitudes articles in your Jan, 10, 1996 issuc containing opposing viewpoints on how First Nations people are perceived, In reading Tom Weegar’s article, ] felt the need to commend him. Not often do [ min across the type of person that has the courage to take up the plight of Firs! _, Nation peoples perspective. Mr. Weegar has a thesis al the local library and I would recommend jt to anyone wanting information on First Nations issucs. The second opinion touched my heart. I bear no more grudge or malice for this individual than I would for a three-year old that fought over a toy with their sibling, Quite the opposite, | would do anything in my power to try to appraise this person of the facts. The author suggests ‘‘Indian housing is owned, paid for and subsidized by the working taxpayers of this country.’ Native housing (on reserve, or on land set aside for natives), is still vested in the Crown or its agencies. Granted, these homes are provided through contribu- tion agreements between the federal government and the nalive bands. I bare no grudge on these agreements, for they were Signed by our forefathers. Long ago, when Indians were our military allies against the encroachment of the enemy from the south, our forefathers felt them deserv- ing of cur government’s protection and care through these arrangements, I would not renege on my forefa- ther’s promise, Most bands have a housing policy so homes will be used for the benefit of the community as a whole. These homes can not be utilized as collateral in strategies that would enhance native opportunities for self determination. Those fortunate cnough to have native housing on reserve, can not use them for collateral to acquire money for businesses, or other profitable ventures, Most often our own homes are subsidized by all of our collective taxes including those paid by natives working off reserve. Even though we hold fee simple title to our homes, try not paying your property taxes sometime and see if your home doesn't revert back to the Crown or its keeper. The author also slates: ‘Explain to me how a people who pay little or no laxes are given special considera- tions in colleges and universities when my wile and I both work and pay almost half of our eamings in in- come tax.”’ He should analyze his tax situation because paying almost half your income lo income tax is ludicrous by any standard, Most educational institutions are somewhat sub- sidized for their services to the community by transfer payments. Some of their funding is acquired by municipal taxation through ratepayer schedules for school tax. The federal government makes contributions through benefit of Indians, During the pioneering ‘stapes of selilement in B,C. it was the federal Indian schools that made provisions for educating settler children where populations hadn’t warranted the building of separate schools for settlers. Even today, to a Jame extent, many institutions solicit the enrollment of native students to enable them to ac- quire the necessary funding in transfer payments to al- low them to offer courses that would be unavailable. Many regions in Canada continue to receive vast amounts of money targeted for the purpose of native education, but it is absorbed as consolidated revenue by the regional government and used for other purposes such as the building of roads or community projects. Despile the resources that were promised to the na- tive communities and leaders for the purpose of native education, the quality of native education still declines. Marco P.J. Costa, Terrace, B.C. Rescue wasn’t hampered Dear Sir: I would like to express the B,C. Ambulance Service's (BCAS) concem regarding, ‘Rescue Effort Hampered By Dispatch Trouble,” Jan. 24. 1996. Contrary to the viewpoint expressed in this article, as the lead agency in the effort to evacuate two injured persons from a remote and snawbound location on Sterling Mountain, BCAS Kamloops Dispatch Centre did an excellent job in coordinating the rescue efforts of three emergency services. Those efforts were hampered by the Jack of detailed information about the specific location of the injured snowmobilers, and the suitability of the lacation for the safe landing of a helicopter. Despite these problems, the two patients were evacuated from an inaccessible wildemess area and taken to hospital within one hour and 45 minutes of the call being received from Terrace RCMP, This is an excellent response time, Your reference to this response as the latest incident in a serics af problems is not only inaccurate, but mis- Jeading. Representatives of Terrace council and the fire department have assured the BCAS they are salisfied wilh the actions taken by Kamloops Dispatch Centre regarding the notification of first responders, and the request for an inquiry would be dropped. It’s unfortunate that The Terrace Standard has not followed up on the original story, and shared this im- portant information with ils readers, Bob Pearce, British Columbia Ambulance Service, Victoria, B.C. About the Mailbag The Terrace Standard welcomes letters to the editor. Our deadline is noon Friday. Our mailing address is 3210 Clinton St, Terrace, B.C. ¥8G 5R2 and our fax number is 638-8432, Last year we had the pleasure of publishing more than 250 letters, a clear sign that readers take an in- terest in a wide variety of issues,