One of the most absurd decisions made by the Liberal government of Canada was to move the Employment Insurance (EI) call center to the east side of the country. Formerly centrally located in Winnipeg to serve the country more equitably, it was used as way to “create” jobs in the east.
A half day difference between east and west means only a half day of service for half the country. Even the closest major centers served are an hour away from the call center, effectively giving it an hour off in the morning – or a last a pretty slack hour to start the day. To make it more anti-productive, EI now sends emails but refuses to receive them. Instead, they request call backs during their own time zone only. Don’t think they actually answer the call, though as it goes to voicemail instead. The message given is they are are unavailable to take your call followed by some pretty explicitly instructions. Do not to call again, text, or otherwise try to get a gold of them. Leave a detailed message with your contact info and best times to reach you and if they feel the information is not enough or otherwise lacking, they simply will not call back.
Thus far in the process, EI has limited your contact times, given themselves the right to email while denying your right to do so, filtered their incoming calls, and created one more hoop to jump through in order to possible speak with someone. The result is an inefficient and ineffective system that doesn’t serve the people of Canada equitably or fairly. No one is getting up at 4am to call EI nor should they have to. Neither should they have to call before noon or not at all.
The fact this was ever moved east speaks more to vote buying than reason and Canadians deserve better. EI is a paid for service, but the likely hood of ever collecting a dime or seeing the money spent wisely is extremely low. This misuse of tax dollars is inexcusable and proper access should be restored but “polite” Canadians simply take the abuse.