The federal government is making three changes to Employment Insurance (EI) in order to support workers in the context of a US tariff war. These changes eliminate the one-week waiting period before workers can collect EI, stop severance and vacation pay affecting EI benefits, and make it easier for workers to qualify for EI. A more detailed description of the changes is included below.

Waiting period

First, the federal government will temporarily remove the one week waiting period for EI benefits. This applies to EI regular benefits (unemployment), special benefits (pregnancy, parental, sickness, caregiving) and fishing benefits. This means that workers will be eligible for EI benefits as soon as they are laid off or start their leave. Normally, workers do not receive any EI benefits for the first week that they are unemployed. It will not mean that workers will receive benefits any faster, and it does not increase the total number of weeks that workers will be eligible for benefits. This measure will be in place for six months starting on March 30th.

Severance and vacation pay

Second, the government is suspending rules around how severance or vacation pay affect EI benefits. Normally, if a worker receives severance or vacation pay when they are laid off, this is considered income, and that worker would not be eligible for EI benefits until their severance or vacation pay was exhausted. Now, these payments will not affect eligibility for EI benefits. This simplifies administration for the government and means more money in affected workers’ pockets. This was done during COVID and has been a core demand of many unions. This measure will be in place for six months starting on March 30th.

EI eligibility requirements

Finally, the federal government is making it a little bit easier for workers to access EI. They are changing the eligibility requirements by adjusting the official unemployment rates for all EI regions. The number of hours that a worker needs to have worked to qualify for EI and the maximum number of weeks of benefits than an unemployed worker can receive from EI depend on the unemployment rate in their EI region.

The adjustment will establish a minimum rate of unemployment so that workers who are in EI regions with 6.1% unemployment or less will be assigned the benefit packages corresponding to an unemployment rate of 7.1%. Workers in regions with more than 6.1% unemployment rate will have their official unemployment rate increased by 1% for the calculation of their benefit packages. The maximum unemployment rate of 13.1% stays the same.

This measure will reduce the hours required to qualify for regular benefits to no higher than 630 hours and increase the weeks of entitlement by up to four additional weeks. This measure will be in effect for three months starting on April 6th. This is not what unions had asked for, which was a single entrance requirement of 420 hours for workers in all regions, which was in place during COVID.  You can see the full range of demands for immediate EI improvements being made by labour and community groups here.

Please reach out to your national representative if you have any questions about the changes to EI.