Thank you for your question.
Indeed, the government has done a couple of things. One, it has frozen EI premium rates for the next two years, and two, it has made whole the EI account for costs related to the Canada emergency response benefit.
That said, the pressure on the account to take on just status quo financial pressures related to employment insurance benefits just because of the weakness of the labour market will likely leave the account in deficit over the medium term, and this puts upward pressure on premium rates.
That said, legislation constrains those EI premium rate increases to 5¢ per year, but I don't want to predetermine any policy decision on the part of this government or future governments in terms of how they might want to treat those premium rate increases in the context of pressure on businesses and workers who are trying to get back on their feet.