Editor,
Recently a CBC reporter asked me about the current federal government's offer to fast track a study on the Employment Insurance program as it is operates on P.E.I. Moving the study from five years from now to two years from today. Not fully understanding the question I answered diplomatically.
I now understand the question and my reaction is “Whoopie-Ding!”
How magnanimous of a government which may not be in power next year — let alone two years from now — to offer a study of the social and economic hardships imposed upon the beleaguered seasonal workers living already for the past five years inside P.E.I.'s notorious and discriminatory EI Zone 2!
I have written two comprehensive reports in which I have been able to demonstrate the method and means with which the current federal government routinely uses in denying seasonal workers living inside Zone 2, fair and equal access to Employment Insurance benefits.
Past and present federal governments have chosen to dupe the people of P.E.I. into thinking they are taking action on this critical EI issue. These governmental actions remind me of George Orwell's 1948 novel "1984." A novel in which Orwell describes a government's fictional media maneouvre called DoubleSpeak.
In 2014 Ms. Gail Shea, the then Conservative member of Parliament for the riding of Egmont, agreed to divide Prince Edward Island into two distinct economic regional zones. Her reasoning for a divided Island was that a two-zone Employment Insurance system would create a level playing field between an unemployed urban worker and an unemployed rural worker when seeking out employment.
Ms. Shea neglected to observe that we living inside Zone 2 struggle though the same winter conditions as people living in Zone 1, with tourist venues and restaurants closed, farmers’ fields covered with snow, and grass that has stopped growing. Where do we living in Zone 2 look for jobs? Ottawa maybe!
In the 2015 federal election, the Liberals clearly stated that if elected, the Island would be reunited under one EI zone. Four years later, P.E.I. is still divided.
Carl Phillis
Artist\seasonal worker
Charlottetown
