GLOBAL ECONOMICS
Patrick Grady
Correction: The Liberal Platform is Only Misleading on EI not Actually a Mistake
September 27, 2015
My previous note claimed to identify a mistake in the Liberal Platform Fiscal Plan prepared for the upcoming October 19th election. On getting further clarification, it turns out that it is not actually a mistake but merely stems from a misleading presentation in the document. The source of the confusion is that the Liberal Platform document identifies a proposed reduction in Employment Insurance (EI) premiums from $1.88 to $1.65 and counts it as a new revenue when it actually should have specified that it was proposing to raise the EI premium rate from $1.49 to $1.65 over the planning horizon. This is presumably to pay for the increases in EI discussed on p.13 of the platform document although the document is a bit vague on the connection between proposed premium and benefit changes.