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The government says claimants can apply remotely. With the service centre phone lines jammed and many senior citizens collecting Old Age Security and EI claimants not even owning a computer or the sophistication to navigate the online world, Canadians are being deprived of the very EI benefits Trudeau has been promising.

The union encouraged them to invoke their right to refuse to work under the Canada Labour Code, claiming that the workplace was not safe because some members of the public might have COVID-19. It was reported that one public servant claimed that a member of the public coughed in his direction. That one citizen could have been asked to leave. But a person coughing should not lead to a whole centre being shut down, let alone across most of Canada. Would a medical office or grocery store close because a member of the public coughed?

There are frontline workers such as cashiers, earning much lower wages, when Canadians need them, at grocery stores and in other essential services dealing with the public. But there is no service more essential than Service Canada.

We have never had, in Canada’s history, so many claimants seeking employment insurance. Canadians who are unemployed, and desperate to file their EI claims and begin resuming income, for what could be a prolonged period before they are employed again.

Processing EI claims urgently is critical. An MNP consumer debt poll this week revealed that around half of Canadians surveyed are now on the brink of insolvency, saying they are $200 or less away from not being able to meet their debt obligations each month.