Over the past ten or fifteen years, unemployment — or the threat of it — has become a painful reality for many Canadians. In previous generations, workers often stayed with the same employer until retirement. Now, the average Canadian worker can expect to hold seven or eight different jobs throughout his or her working life. They can also expect to face significant periods of unemployment between jobs.

Despite slight improvements in job creation over the past few months, the outlook for employment remains bleak. The unemployment situation in Canada today is consistently worse than it has been at any time since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

Not surprisingly, with continued high levels of unemployment has come increased hardship and suffering. For many Canadians, the only thing that has allowed them to keep their heads above water is the Unemployment Insurance (UI) program.

Established 50 years ago, the UI system has served an important role in the Canadian economy. It has helped both individuals and communities weather economic downturns and bouts of unemployment. By replacing lost income, UI has allowed Canadians to maintain their living standards and their dignity while looking for new work. It has also shielded businesses and communities from the rapid drops in consumer spending associated with rising unemployment.

Unfortunately, over the past ten years the system that has served Canadians so well has been under almost constant attack. Starting in the late 1980s under Brian Mulroney's Conservative government and continuing today under the current Liberal administration, UI benefits have been cut substantially. It has also become much more difficult for unemployed workers to qualify for assistance.

The result is that now, at a time when Canadians need assistance more than ever, only about 50 percent of the unemployed are eligible for UI — down from 87 percent in 1990. It is becoming more and more difficult for workers to collect from the insurance program that was supposed to be there for them in hard times.

It is in this atmosphere of cuts and downsizing that the current Liberal government has launched its latest effort to overhaul the UI system. During the fall session of Parliament, the government introduced legislation that will radically transform Canada's system of unemployment insurance. The proposed changes are sweeping — effecting everything from how benefits are calculated to the way in which services for the unemployed are delivered. The bills even question the central principles underlying the current UI program.

What will these changes mean for Canadian workers? How will they effect the economy? In the body of this brief we will attempt to answer these questions and others. We will also list in detail our concerns about the proposed changes and our suggestions for alternative action. But first, we will provide a brief overview of the proposed changes as we understand them.