New support program for collectively laid-off workers in the resource regions

When their Employment Insurance runs out, collectively laid-off workers in Québec's resource regions are currently faced with the choice of either leaving their region to seek employment elsewhere or dipping into their savings and disposing of part of their assets.

To guard against this situation, a new income support program for collectively laid-off workers will be implemented in Québec's resource regions. The program will help stem the exodus from these regions of skilled workers who have lost their jobs following a plant closure by offering them financial assistance until the plant reopens or they find other work in the region.

As soon as their Employment Insurance runs out, laid-off workers and their families will receive social assistance benefits without having to spend their savings or dispose of their assets:

• the benefit paid to an adult and his family will not take into account their liquid assets or the value of their property;
• the benefit paid will not take into account certain types of income, such as severance pay.

The Minister of State for Social Solidarity and Child and Family Welfare and the Minister for the Elimination of Poverty and Exclusion will be announcing the details of this measure.