Finance Minister Jim Flaherty will take steps in his economic update Tuesday to protect jobs and help businesses stay afloat during the global economic slowdown.
Â鶹´«Ã½ has learned Flahery will not proceed with plans to hike employment insurance premiums by 10 cents per $100 for employees and 14 cents for employers.
Instead Flaherty will announce EI premiums will only go up 5 cents per $100 for employees and 7 cents for employers.
"That's 50 per cent less than Flaherty announced in the June budget," Fife noted.
The Canadian Federation of Independent Business and opposition MPs have been pressing Flaherty to freeze or scale back EI premium hikes set out in his June budget.
CTV has also learned Flaherty will announce that Ottawa's work-sharing program will be extended until October 2012. Under the plan, Canadians willing to share jobs and work reduced hours receive EI payments to make up for lost wages.
"These are measures to avoid layoffs and to help businesses stay afloat," Fife said. "It shows how budget plans made just six months ago have been overtaken by the economic downturn."
Canada's jobs picture darkened last week, when Statistics Canada reported that the number of people working fell by 54,000 in October, and 71,700 full-time jobs disappeared.
During his lunch-hour address at the Calgary Chamber of Commerce, Flaherty is also expected to announce that he won't be able to eliminate the government's budget deficit by 2014 as promised.
Canada's economic outlook has soured since Flaherty delivered the budget in June. After two strong quarters, analysts have downgraded their economic growth predictions for this year and next.
