2) There were other considerations for the extended EI program that could be linked to today’s situation with GM. The answers to all three questions frame the value and rules of any extended benefits program. Two years ago, the combined result of policy decisions and economic conditions was that 412,000 people qualified for extra benefits, instead of the 235,000 federal officials originally estimated would use the program. 3) In the 2016 program, older workers accounted for $1.7 billion in payments, despite being only 28 per cent of all recipients of the extra benefits. Also worth noting: Only about one-quarter of EI claimants usually use up benefits before going back to work, but almost half of workers exhausted their benefits under the Liberal program.

Source: National Post November 27, 2018 22:07 UTC