The goverment are sitting on 48 billion of workers money that has been paid into EI and yet we can't get access to it. What a great system ! These are people who have worked full time for years not some seasonal worker who purposely picks a job so they are un-employed for 6 months of the year.

Mr. Hill it is time for you and your cronies to leave office or get in tune with what the population wants.

it's great for hill to say there is work else where but most people don't want to up root their family. you can't make any money paying rent where you work and travel expenses,food, and also being pay mortage hydro gas and be away from your family for up to 2-3 weeks. the goverment can give themselves raises when they want but for the average person when they need extra help they don't really care. what Hill says reminds me of a tv comerical about the lays chips if i give one to you i have to give one to everyone else. if other parts of the country needs EI extension well they would have to look at that but in this case there is a surplus of money the people of Canada paid into EI. When the companies get money back from Woke Safe it is because there is a surplus so why can't the federal goverment provide some kind of pay back to people in the forest industry form the surplus of dollars that hard working people paid. This can't be as hard as Jay Hill and Monty Solberg says it is. If this was about them getting a raise it would have been done yesterday. Just do the right thing for these people and get it done. I agree if Hill and Solberg can't find some way of extending EI step down and let someone who will help these people

"....but most people don't want to up root their family."
People have been moving their families to where the work is for years. It's called doing what you gotta do if you want to get ahead. There are no job guarantees anywhere. Lots of people are looking for work elsewhere everyday. Now that it hits close to home it is getting local attention.

red2b The people of Mackenzie live in an area that is temporarily depressed ,with in 12 to 18 months the forest industry will be back on its feet . My question to all the folks that say pack up and move , what should we do with our home ? could you manage two homes on your pay check or should all of us claim bankruptcy tell me because I have been stressed out about this for months now

I am so sorry Mackbc :(

I'm sorry but like others have said elsewhere, if they extend EI benefits this time, then they would have to for everyone. There have been many other instances in the past that extended benefits have been requested and denied.
Not much on this planet is always fair for everyone but there has to be a line drawn somewhere.

As it is now, if one is layed off and collects benefits for a time, then is re-employed, they may have to repay the benefits they received if they earned too much at their job.

I agree with mackbc as probably Mackenzie
is one of the communities in BC or perhaps
in Canada, that one can buy a house cheap with all the mill closures.
Look around, can you buy a house for $60K?

For a family man to move around is harder than you think. If you are single, another story. If you claim bankcruptcy, then your credit file is useless for 5-7 years?

Jobs and housing were easy back then....

Prince George will soon have its own realty show, "Good people gone bad".

12 - 18 months and the forest industry will be back. And if it's not ,then you waited and used up more valuable time and wasted more EI. What a joke. And even if it starts to turn around, it will not be the same, and nowhere near as many mills.
Many people have good jobs outside of the forest ind. and have paid EI for years, would get treated the same. Move on, get started some where else, then let them foreclose on the house in Mackenzie. and keep your other bills managed. People have to do start over or get a fresh start again in this Province and Country every day.

My husband is an unemployeed sawmill worker because the sawmill he worked out is on an indefinite shutdown (they do that so they don't have to pay severance pay). We have our home, family and children here. I have a good job that's enough to pay the bills. We are not going to give all that up so he can find work else where. I make more money than he did so why would we give that up. That's just crazy. Jay Hill should realize that not everyone can just pack up & go else where in the country.

mythoughts, you are in a lucky situation compared to most. If I were in the same situation, I would be looking at my options elsewhere. PG is nice, but I will move to where the work is -- and being the primary wage earner, my family will come with me.

Everyone's situation is different, but at the end of the day you have to do what's best for your family, even if it means moving.

I've always been the primary wage earner so why would we move. I have a high paying job with full benefits and a very good pension plan. I realize we are one of the very few lucky ones. We are down to one good paying job and will survive. My husband will have to find something else in PG. It's hard for him though. He has spent over 30 years working at the same job and is really having a hard time with this. Hill is saying these unemployeed forestry workers should move to find other jobs. That's not always possible for some as is in our case.

mythoughts, you must have misunderstood my post. I didn't suggest that someone in your situation should move. You can only do what's right for you and your family. Your husband will have to find something to do with his time if moving isn't an option for you.

For many families, moving is something they will have to look at. Families do it all the time for many reasons, whether it's because the primary wage earner got laid off or to pursue better opportunities elsewhere.

E.I. is just another tax. Like the GST. It is the cost (employer/employee) for the privilege of working and being overtaxed to death. (Budget surpluses). Do the math.

At the end of the day, people have to do what they have to do. If that means moving to where the work is, that's what they need to do. Like others have said, it does happen all the time and we are not unique in those regards. Nobody is saying it's easy though.

On top of the fact that people generally don't like change, it's probably an even more difficult feat to go against what your heart wishes for. Add into this the fact that many of the people being impacted by this crisis are likely incredibly loyal to their current situation (a loyalty that is not seen in every generation) and you can see why there are such differences of opinion on the matter.

I told a close friend of mine a few years ago that he should REALLY pay attention to what was going to happen in the industry because all the warning signs for serious future problems were there at that point in time. Newspapers and analysts said the same thing time and time again. It's human nature though. People generally don't react until they have to. I think we're at the point where people are going to have to react.

Holding out hope for a turnaround isn't looking too good right now and I honestly don't see it getting better in even 12-18 months. I just hope that the folks who are impacted find a way through it.

The enormous EI surplus makes my gut knot up. So, change the rules to fit the current situation. Chester

Pay into it for 30 years and what do you get? Is it one year only?

When I was on EI some years ago, I was told that if you receive a full year of benefits that would be far more than the premiums that you would pay in a lifetime of work. Not sure it still applies, but I wouldn't be surprised.

I dont think the forestry industry will turn around at all, Mckbc. IF the US economy needs our wood then perhaps the BC forest industry may stabalize, however things are getting worse in the US and not better for the time being.

"If they extend them here, they'd have to extend them for other places"
.... and your point is?
It's too late now, but the EI should have been coupled with a Public Works program that would have allowed these people to collect the EI PLUS some money on top, which would have produced some lasting improvements in the affected towns, some discretionary money for the workers, and not just paid subsistence to produce nothing!
We're stuck with the either-or train of thoughts: make them move and get nothing OR pay them to do nothing at all even longer.
Stupid tunnel-like thinking benefits no one.