I took a cheap shot at employment insurance today. To balance out the karma I figured I should be a little more positive on the subject and offer up some constructive criticism.

Employment Insurance (EI) often gets a bad rap because it's set-up to do too much. I propose we split the program into two parts: Employment Insurance and Seasonal Work Subsidy. With the two pieces torn apart we can create policies that make sense for each.

Employment Insurance - With the seasonal bits out of the program we can truly tailor its policies for what it is intended to be, employment insurance. Suddenly lose your job after 20 years? No problem, take a year or two to get back on your feet and get retrained. Heck, with all of the EI surpluses we might as well bump up the percentage of the pay you get too. Employment insurance should work as all insurance does. You pay in, then draw out when you need it. Some get more than they put in but in the end everyone is covered. Wacky idea: treat employment insurance as a collection of pseudo individual whole life policies. Never lose your job but have paid into the program your entire life? Why not get a hefty cheque at the end of it?

Seasonal Work Subsidy - Let's call it what it is. This money is spent as a way to prop up industries and areas of the country that otherwise could not sustain the level of wealth they have. It's what allows PEI to have the tourism infrastructure it does. It's, as Jevon points out, another form of transfer payment.

Now, with workers only having full time work on a seasonal basis we need to ensure that they survive throughout the four seasons. If there is part-time work available in the off-seasons let's REWARD those who take the initiative to do it instead of PUNISHING them. I'm not sure how this reward would work but overall I think it's a good idea. It would overcome the simple math of making more money to not work. It would also allow people to work which in and of itself is a rewarding thing to do.

Update: After a night of sleep I awoke with a possible reward system for seasonal workers: For every week/day worked above and beyond the minimum amount of required hours increase the % of their weekly pay they would receive when not working.

I by no means have thought through every detail of how this could/would/should work. This is merely a conversation piece and hopefully a good start to a healthy debate.