For workers now in the new-entrant/re-entrant category, a unified and lower qualifying requirement would, in turn, improve access and support to meaningful job search. Reducing qualifying requirements for regular EI would also make these benefits more accessible to workers recently returning from a maternity or paternity leave, who might otherwise not be able to qualify for such a claim in the face of unexpected layoffs.
Additionally, given the current recession, it would be prudent and simple by a regulation to allow workers returning from maternity and parental leaves, who are laid off without the requisite hours, to count the claim they used prior to taking this leave towards the claim for regular benefits.
My second recommendation is to peg benefit levels to the best 12 weeks of employment over a longer period. The dual rationale is, first, that just prior—