OTTAWA –  Dick Harris, Member of Parliament for Cariboo-Prince George  has introduced a Private Member's Bill that will remove preferential access to Employment Insurance benefits by convicted criminals.

"It is outrageous that convicted felons would receive preferential access to Employment Insurance benefits compared to hard working, law abiding citizens," said MP Harris.  "With this Bill, persons serving jail time will no longer be able to exempt their jail time from the qualifying period when determining benefits."

The Employment Insurance Act currently allows individuals to double the qualifying period for Employment Insurance benefits, as well doubling the period in which an individual can claim benefits - if they were unavailable for work because they were "in a jail, penitentiary or other similar institution."  The result being, that convicted felons have greater access to EI benefits than hard working, law abiding Canadians.

Background:

Under current law, EI benefits are determined based on hours worked in the previous 52 weeks from the date of job loss. All benefits must be taken within 52 weeks after the date of job loss. Benefits not taken within this period lapse once the 52 week period has expired. There are a limited number of exemptions to both the qualification period, as well as the benefit period. One of these exemptions is for individuals "confined in a jail, penitentiary or other similar institution." Individuals who are jailed are allowed to extend the qualifying period in which to count insurable hours to 104 weeks, as well as to double the number of weeks in which to claim benefits to 104 weeks.

What this means in practice is that under the current system an individual who took a year off work to spend time with their family would, on their return to their job, have to work enough hours to re-qualify for benefits. If they lost their job before they re-qualified for benefits, they would receive no benefi

Compare this with convicted felons serving jail time. A convicted criminal serves one year in prison. When they are released, they are allowed to look back beyond the one year they served in jail for an additional 50 weeks. If they worked enough hours in the 50 weeks before they were jailed, they would then qualify for 50 weeks of benefits after their release from jail.

By removing the exemptions for incarcerated individuals, criminals would have to qualify based on the same criteria as law abiding citizens. Criminals who serve more than 52 weeks in jail would therefore no longer qualify for EI benefits on their release.