Scott Simms, Member of Parliament for Bonavista-Gander-Grand Falls-Windsor is today requesting an emergency debate in the House of Commons on a matter that demands immediate attention by the Minister for Human Resources and Skills Development.  The urgent matter is the long processing times being experienced by Employment Insurance (EI) claimants.  This is caused by a policy prohibiting the recalling of casual employees to deal with the extra workload at Service Canada.

In the past, up to 20 casual employees were hired at the Gander office to deal with the high volume and backlog of claims at this busy time of year.  In 2011, that is not the case. 

“I am demanding that this policy be immediately changed to provide for casual worker recall, in order to deal with this desperate situation,” said Simms.  “My offices are inundated with calls from constituents who are waiting lengthy periods of time, some with no other source of income and dependent on a more efficient service”.

In August, the federal government announced that 30 full time EI Processing jobs would be lost in Gander in the name of modernization. It appears that modernization continues by not hiring casuals to deal with the extended workload. 

“The Employment Insurance program is an employee funded insurance program and belongs to the workers,” said Simms. “EI applicants deserve a much better service.  I suggest a start would be to leave the present complement in Gander and Grand Falls-Windsor and supply sufficient support people for the department to deal with the present backlog and to continue to process claims in a timely manner.”

The EI staff are dedicated, hard-working government employees and it is time that the government showed their support by hiring the extra staff necessary to deal with the processing of the high volume of EI claims.