The job is gone, unemployment is gone and the baby needs to be fed (photo by Eric Lewis)
By Stephen Pate, NJN Network, Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada, April 22, 2009
There is a mother on Prince Edward Island who lost her job last year. Her unemployment has run out and she needs milk for her baby. She is desperate. Her baby needs food and milk. She calls anyone who can help her but everywhere she goes the system is all about forms to fill out and approvals.
The people who need to help her are off today, this week, for two weeks, or the next month. The landlord can wait but food for a child cannot.
A father on PEI lost his job two years ago. He used to go to Ontario and Alberta for work but there is none. His unemployment ran out in January and he is desperate.
The rent is two months overdue. The family needs to eat and his children in school have no money for the school activities.
He does not feel like a man anymore.
This is the real face of unemployment on PEI, in Canada and across the United States.
Three hundred more people joined the unemployed in March 2009 on PEI. There are now 2,300 more people out of work than last year. They are losing their unemployment benefits. Seven hundred thousand Canadians lost their work and cannot get unemployment benefits.
Losing your benefits makes the official unemployment rate look better. It makes your life desperate.
Imee
This has really hit home… Some people in my family were unemployed so we built a home business while we lived off a can of sardines for all six of us each meal. Things were difficult, but we found ways such as that to get back up, and we learned from the past experience.