There will certainly be a decrease in benefits. The elimination of arbitration boards and the new mandatory administrative review process and the Social Security Tribunal alone are already discouraging the unemployed. Some of them will decline their right to appeal because of the administrative procedures and the lengthy delays. Those individuals will not receive benefits when they might have had a right to them. There is a "black hole". Those benefits will no longer be paid out.
Furthermore, according to the new criteria, individuals who turn down supposedly appropriate employment will not be able to receive benefits for between 7 to 12 weeks. One could even imagine, if you think about this, there being an employment insurance surplus, although I am not an accountant. Certainly, the benefits being paid will go down. This reform will have a direct effect on the unemployed who will receive less benefits. The abolition of the Canada Employment Insurance Financing Board is one more nail being hammered in by this entire reform. It affects many aspects of the Employment Insurance Act.