In general, the system must be unlocked. An editorialist for the daily newspaper La Presse, Mario Roy, concluded his editorial last year by saying that the employment insurance system must be unlocked. In other words, the issue of eligibility must be settled, because many people are currently not entitled to benefits.
Allow me to give you an example. Last week someone called our office from Lachute, which is not far from Montreal. The person's administrative region for EI is Centre-du-Québec. This person is a construction worker who applied for EI benefits in December. He had accumulated 594 hours of work. When he submitted his application to the Lachute office, he was told that it was fine and that there shouldn't be any problem. Two months later, in February, he received a reply. His application was refused whereas one of his construction colleagues, who lives in Mirabel, which is not far from Lachute but part of the administrative region of Montreal, had his application accepted.
In Montreal, 560 hours of work is required. So his colleague was eligible. There was nothing that could be done legally because of this rather arbitrary division that should not exist.