VICTORIA – Amid the political uproar over reforming Employment Insurance, a little-noticed landmark occurred in B.C. this month.

The north, which Statistics Canada defines as everything from the Cariboo and northern Vancouver Island up, slid into the lowest eligibility category for EI benefits. That is, 420 hours worked.

While politicians debated the alleged inequities of the current system of 58 employment regions across the country, two thirds of B.C. quietly joined the 420 club with Newfoundland and Nunavut.

The 420-hour minimum is based on an official unemployment rate for northern B.C. that has climbed to 13.7 per cent. In the more prosperous Okanagan and Kootenays, it takes 525 hours worked to qualify for benefits, but as in the north, claimants there can collect up to the national maximum of 50 weeks. In the Fraser Valley and southern Vancouver Island, you need 595 hours and benefits run out after 47 weeks.

Abbotsford, now big enough to be its own census region, requires 630 hours and the benefits last only 45 weeks.

Eligibility is of course strictest in the big cities, Metro Vancouver and Victoria’s capital region, where an official seven per cent jobless rate means 665 hours of work are needed and benefits run out after 43 weeks.

What this essentially means is that the system works, and there is no regional bias favouring the Maritimes or Ontario or wherever. 

The words of Robert Service still ring true. Premier Gordon Campbell was moiling for EI gold with his western counterparts in Dawson City last week, and even today there are strange things done ’neath the midnight sun. (Yukon is in the 420 club, as one would expect.)

Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall echoed Campbell’s earlier message that the system is unfair to the western provinces. In an article for The Globe and Mail before the western premiers met, Campbell called the current EI variations “clearly discriminatory.” He cited the difficulty faced by forest workers, miners and construction workers trying to transfer their skills to another job.

It’s hard to see what Wall is griping about. If Saskatchewan is being discriminated against, it’s because flatlanders are enjoying the best economic conditions in the country.

And as for Campbell’s argument, how easy is it for a car assembly line worker to transfer his skills to another job?

The western premiers’ latest proposal involves simplifying the system to three eligibility zones: urban, rural and remote. 

Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach says the “remote” category would include places such as the Yukon and Northwest Territories, where distances and sparse population make it difficult and expensive to move for work. That seems fair enough, and presumably parts of B.C. would also qualify for a new rate that would dip below 420 hours.

That’s what this discussion is really about. How much more generous should the bottom end of the EI system be?

Here’s what it should be about. How much more incentive do we want to give people to stay in remote places when they’re not working? And how much do we raise payroll taxes on the employed to pay for all this generosity?

Prime Minister Stephen Harper derided Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff’s plan for “the 45-day work year.” That’s an accurate description of lowering EI eligibility to 360 hours nationwide. Using Harper’s math, much of B.C. already has a “52-day work year.” The federal panel studying the issue over the summer should consider whether that’s low enough.

Meanwhile, what about all those self-employed people who don’t ever qualify for EI?

More on that next week.

Tom Fletcher is legislative reporter and columnist for Black Press newspapers. tfletcher@blackpress.ca