Apparently, in this morning's paper, I (and a lot of other Hill journalsts) was a bit prescient —
Administered poorly, the employment insurance premiums I, you and our bosses pay for that rainy day we hope we never need can be a terrible job-killing tax that hurts our economy and all Canadians.
The federal government is in danger of doing just that.
Administered properly, employment insurance premiums rise and fall slowly over time based on our ability to contribute and the whole employment insurance system acts as the best kind of fast-acting automatic economic stabilizer.
Wednesday, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty hinted he is prepared to do something to make sure a premium rate hike set for Jan. 1 doesn’t become a job-killing tax. Let’s hope he does just that.
So far in Ottawa this week there has been a lot of hot air about who gets how much and for how long on EI.
Those are important issues, for sure, but not nearly so important for the smooth functioning of our economy as the mechanism by which premiums are set… [Read the rest of the piece]