Conservatives yield to critics on controversial EI changes

The Conservative government is dialing back a controversial change to employment insurance after weeks of being criticized by the opposition.

The changes left some low-income recipients worse offthan they were under the previous system.

In a late Friday afternoon news release, Human Resources Minister Diane Finley's office backtracked, now offering claimants the choice of opting to return to the old system if the new one wasn't to their benefit.

“We have listened to those concerns and today I am announcing our intent to make adjustments to the new pilot program,” Finley was quoted as saying in the release.

But Rodger Cuzner, Liberal MP for Cape Breton – Canso, N.S., told CBC News on Saturday that the devil is in the details and that this now creates "two classes" of workers who are on EI while working part-time.

According to Cuzner, this will create "needless hurdles and excessive delays."

"The fact still remains that low-income Canadians who do not have the option to revert to the old program will still be worse off under the new one," Cuzner said in a written statement to CBC News.

In early August, Finley announced changes to the "working while on claim pilot program" for EI recipients who find part-time work while still collecting benefits.

It replaced the previous system that clawed back claims once the part-time wages exceeded 40 per cent of their benefits, or $75 a week, whichever was greater.

The government felt the old system discouraged Canadians from accepting more available work to earn wages beyond that threshold.

The new pilot program reduced the clawback on new earnings to 50 per cent. But it kicked in with the first dollar earned, not at 40 per cent.

The effect was that claimants who found only a little part-time work wound up penalized by the new system, while those who worked longer hours and at higher pay could keep more of their earnings.
Disincentives under both old and new systems

Opposition MPs argued the change hurt the most vulnerable and took away any incentive even to start to work while collecting EI.

For example, a person receiving benefits of $330 a week and earning an extra $150 at a part-time job would bring in $405 under the pilot system, compared to $462 before the change.

Friday's reversal allows those EI recipients who qualify to keep the first $75 they earn in benefits while working part-time, as they could under the old system. Above the 40 per cent threshold, benefits would be reduced dollar for dollar.

Claimants who qualify must now decide whether they would be better off under the new system or the old – but they have to make a request with Service Canada to revert to the previous system, otherwise the new rules apply.

Claimants can't switch back and forth between the two systems week to week, but must choose one or the other.

The changes come into effect Jan. 6, 2013, but will be applied retroactively to Aug. 5, 2012, the day the pilot program took hold.

Starting in January, claimants must request to revert to the old pilot program's regulations within 30 days of their last EI benefit payment. For claims that have already ended, claimants will have 30 days from the introduction of this option.

The working while on claim pilot program is set to run until Aug. 1, 2015.

Earlier this week, New Democrats introduced a motion for debate in the House of Commons that said the pilot project was "not benefiting the vast majority of EI recipients, creating a disincentive to part-time work and leaving low-income Canadians worse off than before." The motion called on the government to take steps to fix it immediately.

On Wednesday evening, the Conservative caucus voted against the motion. Two days later, Finley's office announced the reversal quietly in a late-afternoon news release just as MPs were heading back to their ridings for a one-week Thanksgiving break.

Canada surprises with 52,000 new jobs in September

Canada's economy added 52,000 jobs in September, but the unemployment rate ticked higher to 7.4 per cent because more people were looking for work.

The gain was more than the roughly 10,000 new jobs that economists polled by Bloomberg were expecting.

U.S. surprise

Canada's jobs data beat expectations, but was blown away by news from the U.S. also released Friday which showed that country's unemployment rate has ticked below 8 per cent for the first time in almost four years.

Statistics Canada said Friday that full-time work made up most of the gains, with a net 44,100 new positions added.

"We’re encouraged to see 52,000 more Canadians working in September and 820,000 net new jobs created since July 2009," Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said in a statement.

An increase in 34,000 retail jobs and 29,000 new construction workers was more than enough to offset declines in other sectors. "The two big movers last month were the very sectors that had displayed pronounced weakness previously," BMO economist Doug Porter said after the release of the data.

LABOURUnemployment rates in Canada

Provincially, Ontario and Manitoba led the way, while the jobs number declined in Saskatchewan, where 3,600 jobs were lost — the first notable drop there since November of last year.

There was little change in either direction in all other provinces and territories, Statistics Canada said.

"The underlying trend in Canadian employment is surprisingly stable," Porter noted.

Others were less enthused. Canadian Labour Congress president Ken Georgetti noted there are now five unemployed workers for every job opening across the country. "Our economy is sluggish and there is very little prospect on the horizon for real job growth," Georgetti said in a release.

India trading crash briefly erases $58 billion

India’s stock market regulator launched an investigation Friday into a sudden plunge in shares that briefly erased $58 billion US in value on the S&P CNX Nifty Index.

The index of 50 stocks fell by almost 900 points, or 16 per cent, during the morning session, halting trading on the National Stock Exchange of India for about 15 minutes.

The Mumbai-based exchange blamed what it said were 59 erroneous orders placed by stock broker Emkay Global.

After the orders were cancelled, trading resumed and the index ended the session down 0.84 per cent at 5,738.70.

The NSE, Asia’s fourth largest market and India’s largest, handles three quarters of stock trades in the country.
Drop follows 'flash crash' episodes

The incident renewed concerns about the effects of electronic trading on the functioning of financial markets.

It happened two days after Nasdaq and other exchanges cancelled some trades of Kraft Foods Group Inc. following an unusual spike after the market opened.

Kraft's shares opened at $45.55 before surging to $58.54 in the first minute of trading. Nasdaq attributed the glitch to a broker error, although it did not name the broker involved.

High frequency trading was also blamed for deepening a so-called “flash crash” in May 2010 which briefly erased $862 billion in market value in U.S. stocks.

And in May of this year, the Nasdaq was so swamped by orders it delayed the first day of trading after Facebook’s initial public offering.

European Investment Bank grants Morocco 43-mln-euro loan for agriculture

RABAT, Oct. 6 (Xinhua) -- The European Investment Bank (EIB) has granted Morocco a loan of 43 million euros (about 56 million U. S. dollars) to develop its agriculture and improve the efficiency of irrigation, a local radio reported Saturday.

The loan aims to reinforce Morocco's water-saving facilities for irrigation in the regions of Gharb, Haouz and Souss Massa, with a goal of modernizing the irrigation system for a better productivity.

The agreement on the loan will accompany the country's policy for agriculture, a key economic sector that represents an average of 13.5 percent of GDP between 2006 and 2011 and employs around 40 percent of the country's workforce.

The EIB has already financed major irrigation projects in Morocco, mainly the irrigation project in Doukkala for 60 million euros (about 78 million dollars).

Press Release: Gold forecast of US$2,200 per oz in 2013 — Explor Resources Inc. Growing Gold Resource with 30 Million oz Potential

Analysts at German-based Deutsche Bank this week forecast gold to rise above $2,200 per oz in 2013, supported by central bank stimulus action. With gold forecast to rise, Market Equities Research Group has noted that astute investors would do well to look at gold focused junior mining equities for superior returns as they are inexpensive relative to the gold price and to historical trading multiples. Equities of select junior miners are by far the best vehicles for wealth creation, the risk reward ratio on the junior miners are very significant and if you are willing to take the risk and diversify accordingly the orders of magnitude are there. This understanding of the risk-reward potential was the reason why Larry Feinstein, Equities Research Director – Mining MarketWatch Journal, has identified Explor Resources Inc. as one of the best vehicles for investors seeking serious strong growth prospects in precious metals in a proven and safe mining friendly jurisdiction.

New York, NY (PRWEB) October 06, 2012

Explor Resources Inc. with over 100,000 meters drilled to date, has proven its exploration model at its Timmins Porcupine West (TPW) gold deposit in the prolific Abitibi Greenstone belt of Ontario and is building ounces. The current resource at the TPW deposit is 212,800 oz gold Indicated (at 4.83 g/t) + 814,800 oz gold Inferred (at 3.56 g/t) and that is expected to rise dramatically over the near-term; by the end of 2012 Mining MarketWatch Journal forecasts the resource to be advanced to ~1.5 million ounces gold, and by the end of 2013 advanced to ~3 million ounces gold — that would represent only 10% of the deposits potential.

Explor Resources is the subject of a Mining MarketWatch Journal Review offering insight and opportunity afforded investors; the full Mining Journal review may be found at http://www.miningmarketwatch.net/exs.htm online.

Explor Resources has a market cap under $29 million and is poised for considerable share price appreciation as the reality of the accomplishment underway is appreciated by the market. The exploration model Explor has developed for the deposit is named after the nearby Hollinger and McIntyre gold mines that have a similar porphyry and produced 30 million ounces of gold. The porphyry is the heat engine that pushes the gold into weak adjacent (sedimentary and mafic volcanic) rocks — the bigger the porphyry the bigger the potential deposit; Explor Resources' TPW porphyry is 5 times bigger than the Hollinger-McIntyre porphyry and all evidence to date has shown the exploration model to be accurate. The gold mineralization is concentrated in two mineralized limbs of syncline and so far Explor has, for the most part, concentrated its efforts only on the top portion of the south limb, the north limb is believed to be as equally rich. The north limb was recently the recipient of a 2,403 m stratigraphic (study of layers) diamond drill hole which further proved the model, it also found some gold to build on in the process, and it affirmed the overall structure is large enough to contain the 30 million ounces of gold that the model is based on.

The strike length of the gold mineralization to date is greater than 2000 meters, with the structure still open on strike and at depth. Depth-wise, area mines have successfully mined for high-grade gold to ~2,000+ metres, double the depth currently established on the south limb; the current resource established on the south limb was based on drilling to ~600 m, and recent drilling not yet incorporated into the resource is proving up high grades to ~1000 m (i.e. Jan. 31, 2012 release '14.8 g/t gold over 7.8 m', Feb. 23, 2012 release '7.36 g/t gold over 13.5 m', May 15, 2012 release '28.46 g/t gold over 3.30 m').

In excess of 100,000 m of diamond drilling has been completed by Explor Resources to date. Recent drill programs (including August 21, 2012 "Explor intersects 7.65 g/tonne Au over 33.2 meters on Timmins Porcupine West") has affirmed the continuity of mineralization and quality grade from hole to hole with increasing width as Explor Resources goes to depth and are very significant in terms of establishing a potentially large mineable gold resource. A new updated resource calculation is expected to be prepared for the end of 2012.

Mining MarketWatch Journal sees a comparison, exit strategy wise for shareholders benefit, to the scenario that unfolded for Virginia Gold Mines with its sale of its Eleonore gold deposit to Goldcorp for close to half a billion dollars plus the retention of a rich sliding royalty. Virginia Mines proved up ~3M ounces and sold to Goldcorp which carried the ball for many times that. Explor Resources has a very real similar potential outcome in store as the porphyry system at the TPW gold deposit is 5 times the size of the 30M ounces gold Hollinger-McIntyre, the exploration efforts to date support the exploration model, and a readily achievable target of 3 million ounces by the end of 2013 represents just the tip of the iceberg.

Shares outstanding: 147,671,992 (~187.5M fully diluted). It appears the time to buy EXS.V is now while it is trading under 20 cents and poised for significant upside share price revaluation to reflect the inherent value of its properties and immense potential. The full Mining Journal review may be found at http://www.miningmarketwatch.net/exs.htm online.

For those looking to establish a long position, near-term stock price catalysts include pending assay results from Explor Resources prolific south limb of the TPW gold deposit and an updated resource calculation expected this Q4 2012.

This release may contain forward-looking statements regarding future events that involve risk and uncertainties. Readers are cautioned that these forward-looking statements are only predictions and may differ materially from actual events or results. Articles, excerpts, commentary and reviews herein are for information purposes and are not solicitations to buy or sell any of the securities mentioned.