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Conservative ridings benefit from Service Canada closures
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CBC News
As the battle gets even tougher for out-of-work Canadians trying to get Employment Insurance, there are new accusations that planned closures of Service Canada processing centres will benefit Conservative ridings, while harming opposition ridings, especially in Atlantic Canada.
Over the next three years, Human Resources and Development Canada plans to cut the number of offices that process EI claims from 120 nationwide down to about 20.
Of the 20 processing centres left, more than half will be in Conservative ridings and only one will be in a Liberal riding.
The government argues that an ongoing process of automation will eliminate the need for so many workers in so many locations. That's despite a current months-long backlog of more than 80,000 claims that have waited longer than the four-week limit, part of which has been blamed on flawed automation.
About a third of people with EI claims now pending have been waiting more than a month for cheques, and many more than two months.
Human Resources Minister Diane Finley said there is always a surge in applications in December and January, and this year the spike was higher than usual. Her office said the department has added 400 employees in recent weeks and shifted 120 people from part-time to full-time to deal with the backlog.
"We do monitor it closely and that's why we have added extra resources," Finley said in an interview. "We're continuing to do that this month to make sure those cheques get out faster."
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