Whitehorse residents will be hit harder and in higher numbers than anywhere else across the North by changes to Employment Insurance, according to Access to Information documents.

About 600 Whitehorse residents on EI stand to lose $3.3 million in entitlement benefits following changes thrown into gear over the Thanksgiving weekend.

The total amounts to nearly half the amount northerners will lose as a result of the new rules, state documents obtained by a Liberal MP.

The changes took effect Monday and impact the Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut and Prince Edward Island.

The main change lies in splitting each territory into two EI zones — capital and “non-capital” — with eligibility now more difficult in Whitehorse, Yellowknife and Iqaluit than in the outlying regions.

Residents in those three cities now need to work at least 700 hours — instead of the previously demanded 420 hours — to qualify for EI.

Benefits can be collected for no longer than 36 weeks, down from 45 weeks.

“It just seems to me that it’s part of the trend that’s making it harder for working people to maintain a decent level of income,” Bill Thomas, co-chair of the Yukon Anti-Poverty Coalition, said in an interview today.

“We’ve always as Canadians for decades been proud of an income support program like EI ... I’m really disappointed in the government, they’re just making it more difficult.”

Thomas noted the federal government recently announced its plan to double the refundable child fitness tax credit.

But he also highlighted the rise in the number of people making use of food banks across the country.

“There’s more need now than ever for income support programs,” he said.

Yukon MP Ryan Leef could not be reached for comment on the impacts to the territory before press time this afternoon.

Employment Minister Jason Kenney’s office stated the EI system in the territory now “reflects the reality of the local labour market.

“EI benefits continue to be there for Yukoners, including in areas where jobs simply do not exist outside seasonal or specialized industries,” the Employment department said in a briefing.

It noted that since the 1970s, the unemployment calculation for the territories had been fixed at 25 per cent. “This outdated calculation ignored the local reality,” the Employment department stated.

At 6.3 per cent, Yukon’s unemployment rate is the third-lowest in the country, with Whitehorse at 5 per cent.

That figure belies figures from the struggling Yukon mining industry — Alexco Resources has suspended operations at its Bellekeno silver mine indefinitely — as well as a low vacancy rate that results in higher rent.

About 600 Whitehorse residents — out of a total 1,600 claimants — will get less cash or fewer weeks of EI due to the changes, resulting in $3.3 million in assistance losses, according to the documents.

None of the 1,000 claimants in the communities are slated to be negatively affected.

Nearly 1,400 northern residents total could be hit by the changes.

In Yellowknife, roughly 240 people are projected to lose about $1.4 million total, while 430 more people across the territory could see $2 million in losses.

Roughly 50 people in Iqaluit and another 50 in areas outside the capital are slated to lose $500,000 in all.