Bill C-418

An Act to amend the Employment Insurance Act (accessibility and other measures)

This enactment amends the Employment Insurance Act to, among other things
(a) increase the 2023 maximum yearly insurable earnings by 40 %;
(b) establish a hybrid criterion for receiving benefits that consists of hours or weeks of work and consequently eliminate the system of major and minor attachment claimants and the concept of a waiting period;
(c) allow an extension of the qualifying period for a person who is unavailable for work because of a parental leave;
(d) increase the maximum number of weeks for which benefits may be paid in a benefit period by replacing the table in Schedule I;
(e) eliminate the combined weeks of benefits rule, which limits the total number of weeks of benefits to 50 when a person is entitled to both regular and special benefits;
(f) increase the maximum number of weeks for which benefits may be paid in a benefit period because of illness, injury or quarantine from 26 weeks to 50 weeks;
(g) provide that a claimant’s weekly insurable earnings are equal to their insurable earnings in the period of 12 consecutive or non-consecutive weeks for which they received the highest insurable earnings;
(h) increase the rate of weekly earnings that must be paid to a claimant from 55 % to 60 %;
(i) entitle to benefits a person who is unable to work because of domestic violence, an obligation to assume parental responsibilities or a return to education; and
(j) establish the Employment Insurance Fund, to be administered by the Canada Employment Insurance Commission.
The Act also contains transitional provisions and makes a consequential amendment to the Department of Employment and Social Development Act .

Employment Insurance Act

[Louise Chabot, Bloc, Thérèse-De Blainville, QC]

moved for leave to introduce Bill C‑418, An Act to amend the Employment Insurance Act (accessibility and other measures).

Mr. Speaker, it is with the support of my very dear colleague, the member for Manicouagan, that I am immensely proud to introduce a bill that proposes robust measures to strengthen the Employment Insurance Act. It would reform eligibility criteria, the duration of benefits and the amounts provided. I am the Bloc Québécois employment and labour critic and I have been championing and supporting this cause to reform the EI system since my first day in 2019, along with workers and the unemployed.

The Bloc Québécois is taking action where the Liberal government has failed. Its failure is appalling, because it chose to do nothing despite its 2015 commitment to reform the system and its many promises since then. In the wake of the pandemic, the government itself recognized that it had taken too long to act. This policy choice has left thousands of unemployed workers out in the cold, victims of an outdated law that protects them poorly or not at all. The system has failed to adapt to the realities of today's workplace and the resulting injustices and inequities continue, yet the problems and solutions were identified long ago.

Today we are introducing a Bloc Québécois bill, a solid bill that is aligned to current realities and would better protect a greater number of workers. I am thinking of the workers in the seasonal industry. I am thinking of young people and women who have non-standard jobs and do not have access to employment insurance. I am thinking of pregnant women who lose their job and do not benefit from the protections of employment insurance. I am thinking of the people who are left out in the cold by the system. Thousands of workers who contribute to employment insurance are not protected by the legislation. Employment insurance coverage needs to be expanded to more people. It is about fairness.

Our bill corrects several major flaws with employment insurance and we invite the Liberal government and its Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Official Languages to also side with the workers, keep their promises and implement the proposals we are making today.

(Motions deemed adopted, bill read the first time and printed)