Canadians with Cancer: Save Them from Poverty, Extend Their EI Benefits

Insufficient EI Coverage Shouldn’t Ruin Cancer Patients, Olivia Chow Argues

February 13, 2012

OTTAWA – Half of all Canada’s population is statistically at risk of developing cancer at some during their lives. When this happens to a working Canadian, poverty or horrendous debt too often follow. Why? Employment Insurance benefits expire after roughly four months while an average cancer treatment take nine months. Member of Parliament Olivia Chow is supporting an opposition initiative to extend EI coverage to roughly a year to avert the worst for cancer patients who lose their jobs.

The results of the current, short-sighted rules: Canadians battling cancer and other serious medical conditions have to borrow money from friends and family, pile up credit card debt, take out loans or simply go under financially. It doesn’t have to be this way, as other countries show. The UK, France and Germany all have unemployment benefit rules that guarantee coverage for at least a year, in some cases up to three years depending on the circumstances. Today, Olivia Chow made the case in the House of Commons that this can be accomplished in Canada as well. Her plea was in the context of the House debating Bill C-291, an initiative that tries to remedy a number of flaws in the current legislation. Please see her full speech below.

Olivia’s demand is simple. Let’s give Canadians struggling with Cancer and other serious diseases the support they deserve. Instead of letting them slip into poverty, we should protect them and their families from financial ruin through extended EI coverage.

Transcript:

Ms. Olivia Chow (Trinity—Spadina, NDP):

Mr. Speaker, here in Canada, according to the Canadian Cancer Society, one out of two Canadians will be, or are, at risk of developing cancer.

In looking at the House of Commons, out of the over 300 members of parliament, half are at risk of developing cancer. All across this country there are thousands and thousands of cancer patients who have just been diagnosed. On average, they have to wait at least seven weeks, almost two months, before treatment starts.

The treatment, on average, takes at least nine months. There are the CT scans, and chemotherapy, an operation or radiation. Yet, when they are going through this kind of surgery or treatment, they are told by the government, “Sorry, you cannot receive any employment insurance beyond 15 weeks.” That is less than four months.

Imagine, people are already going through a lot of stress, their body is stressed, their mental health is stressed, their family is under stress, and on top of that they are being told that the funds they have contributed towards all their life, that they have put towards employment insurance so that when they are sick they can get some of the money back, at the end of not quite four months will end. They cannot get any more employment insurance.

Most of these Canadians, on average, are still going through treatment. According to the Cancer Society it takes at least nine months to receive treatment. This means that they are either going to have to remortgage their homes, go into debt or use up their savings in order to continue their cancer treatment.

This is exactly what happened to Marie Helen Dubois. She is a 40-year-old woman who has had cancer over and over again. She collected thousands and thousands, in fact half a million signatures. One would think this government would listen, but the Conservative government is out of touch with the reality of people in Canada. It is not listening. It is ignoring the desires of half a million Canadians who have signed a petition to say that we have to extend employment insurance to at least 50 weeks.

The New Democrats have said so for many years. It was in our election platform 2011. The member of Parliament for New Westminster—Coquitlam, sitting right behind me, our fisheries critic introduced a private member’s bill that would do exactly what we have in front of us. Our past leader, Jack Layton said many times that EI must be extended to least 50 weeks, close to a year, for people who have a serious illness.

Canadians should not have to go into debt or lose, on average, $12,000 per household, and that is how much they end up losing because of illness. They should not have to wait for two months. Surely, there should be a benefit period that would last beyond 15 weeks.

In England, it is 52 weeks; in France, it is 12 to 36 months, depending upon the kind of illness; and in Germany, it is 78 weeks. We are incredibly behind in the way we treat people suffering with a serious illness.

It is not just people who have cancer. There are a lot of illnesses that take a long time to recover from. For example, for people who have liver disease, who suffered, or who have some kind of heart problems, it takes them more than two or four months to recover from those serious illnesses.

It is not as if these Canadians are asking for taxpayer r money. This money belongs to them. If we look at the demographics, most of the people who are suffering from an illness that lasts a longer time, by and large, they are older Canadians. They would have been contributing into this EI fund for many years; in fact, most of their lives.

One would think this is just natural. After all these years, why do we have a system like this?

When the Liberals were in government, they gutted the EI program. They changed the waiting period, they changed the criteria, they changed the benefit period and they took $54 billion out of the EI program that, in fact, belongs to these Canadians who have contributed to the employment insurance fund.

What happened then? Because the Liberals gutted the program and used the surplus for their own use, as a result, the Conservatives said, “That’s fine. We’ll make it into a law.”. They then established a separate body for the EI funds, limiting the amount would be $2 billion.

An hon. member: And legalized it, too.

Ms. Olivia Chow: Exactly. My colleague is absolutely right. This is legalizing the stealing of $54 billion of Canadians’ hard-earned money that they have contributed every two weeks into this EI fund. As a result, people like Marie Helen Dubois are not allowed to get their EI money.

This is not just about her. On average, right now, as of today, we note that there were 328,770 claims for special benefits under the EI program. A third of them were for a serious illness that required more than 15 weeks.

We are talking about over 100,000 Canadians who have their employment insurance benefits cut off at a time they need it most, at a time when they are under stress and need the government to support them so that they can get some of their money back. They are told, “No. Sorry. Your benefits are gone”. As a result, they are disqualified or they run out of their benefits, they end up having to use their savings, or they go into debt.

This is completely irresponsible behaviour. Household debt in Canada has been going up tremendously. We know why. This is one of the reasons. We have all these Canadians who get sick and at a time when they really need the help. They go into debt, take out a line of credit, borrow money, or find other ways to make ends meet. Some them, as I know, put their rent payment on their credit cards and then pay 18% to 20% interest. They get more and more into debt. We know that a third of Canadians who are very sick are one or two paycheques away from getting into trouble.

They are getting into trouble, precisely because the Conservative government and the Liberal government before it are out of touch with the reality of ordinary Canadians who desperately need help when they are sick.

Let us collectively approve this private member’s bill and get it into committee so it can become law so people with sickness and people who have cancer, or Marie-Hélène Dubé, will finally get the money they deserve.

 

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