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unemployment insurance
DCHP-2 (Oct 2016)
Spelling variants:Unemployment Insurance, UI
n. — somewhat dated, Administration
temporary support payments for qualified workers (see employment insurance).
Type: 4. Culturally Significant — The service, offered by the federal government, changed its name in 1996 from unemployment insurance to employment insurance. The former term, as Chart 1 shows, still has some currency in Canada, though use elsewhere is much greater. The idea of unemployment insurance was conceived before WWI (see the 1914 quotation), and received support from Labor Congresses (see the 1920 quotation), yet it was not until the 1930s when the first such payments were legislated and commenced. For more detail, see employment insurance. In the North American context, basic social services such as these are a culturally salient feature of Canadianness in the eyes of many.
See also COD-2, s.v. "unemployment insurance", which lables it "Cdn", OED-3, s.v. "unemployment".
See also COD-2, s.v. "unemployment insurance", which lables it "Cdn", OED-3, s.v. "unemployment".
Quotations
1914
If there is justification anywhere for the organization of unemployment insurance it is in a country such as this, where seasonal conditions throw large numbers of the least provident and thrifty out of work for several weeks every winter.
1920
In the coming Cabinet discussions preceding the opening of Parliament the question of unemployment insurance is likely to play an important part. Out of the conventions and recommendations arising from the Washington Labor Conference of the League of Nations, a recommendation regarding unemployment insurance is one of the few which, according to a ruling of the Department of Justice, come properly within the jurisdiction of the Dominion Parliament.
1935
1. Establishment throughout Canada of a uniform wage and a uniform working week.
2. Abolition of child labour and sweatshop conditions.
3. Creation of a permanent system of sound and scientific unemployment insurance and abolition of the dole.
1950
Unemployment insurance was too small and was slow in reaching the unemployed. The city, he said, was having to aid the unemployed until his insurance is received, and then afterward, has to supplement this amount because of its inadequacy.
1959
The somewhat less sophisticated people of the Maritimes have a happier name for Unemployment Insurance . . . "Rockin' Chair Money."
1970
There was no unemployment insurance, no baby bonus or family allowance to aid in bringing up our children.
1988
However, other UI cheques - to be sent to an unknown destination - will not be delivered until Wednesday.
1995
Bakeapples, also known as cloudberries, offered an alternative.
By tacking work from the six-week picking season onto other employment, the 12-week UI threshold could be crossed.
Until recently, bakeapples were used mainly for pie filling. Last year, a Quebec distiller announced it needed the distinctive and delicious yellow berries as a base for a liqueur called Shicoutac, the Innu word for bakeapple.
1997
The number of Canadians filing new claims for unemployment insurance benefits fell to 217,000 in October, down 2.3 per cent from 222,000 in September. Statistics Canada said the decline was led by Ontario, where new applications fell 12.2 per cent from September. Meanwhile, the number of people receiving unemployment insurance benefits dipped 0.6 per cent to 589,540. The number of beneficiaries fell in seven provinces and rose in three, with Alberta posting the biggest monthly decline -- down 5 per cent.
2005
Recall the old UI program that actually lured kids out of high school to work for a few weeks in the fishing boats and plants before heaving off on the pogey and bombing around in their cars and ATVs and snowmobiles for the rest of the year.
2008
I see wonderful opportunities here for future retirement and ecotourism, and yet I meet many people on unemployment insurance who would rather be doing nothing than being out working.
References
- OED-3
- COD-2
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