Are these EI enhancements?
There have been calls for the Government of Canada to address gaps in the EI system for a long time. Today the unemployment rate ticked up once again and EI got some changes. Were they the right ones?
Many of us have been warning that the Employment Insurance system is overdue for substantive and administrative changes to drag it into the 21st century, especially now as Canada copes with the next wave of economic challenges (this time, brought on by Trump). Today, the unemployment rate in Canada ticked up once again and the Prime Minister announced some EI changes, with some additional background details here.
First, the ok, if imperfect, bits
The government is again extending the relatively modest changes that will make it a little bit easier for some laid-off workers to qualify for regular benefits. They are making temporary changes to lower the hours threshold needed to qualify. This is the third extension to the changes first introduced in March and April by the previous government.
More than half of unemployed workers don't qualify for EI benefits, often because of too few insured hours, or because of separation codes on the Record of Employment. This is a long-standing issue (see this, for example). As of August, there were 1.6 million unemployed workers and 750K active EI claims for regular benefits. The lay-offs recorded in August were primarily among part-time workers. I wouldn’t expect that the temporary tweaks to the EI rules on hours to qualify will do much for most of those newly laid-off workers.
Today, the government also announced that long-tenured workers who get onto EI after a lay-off will have a longer period to collect regular benefits, up to 65 weeks. As near as I can tell, the current EI definition of “long-tenured worker” is someone who has claimed less than 36 weeks of regular (or fishing) EI benefits in the last 5 years AND has paid in at least 30% of the maximum annual EI premium in the last 7 years. For reference, the average duration of regular benefits going back to 2019 is 19.2 weeks (with some skew in there for pandemic times), the maximum EI premium for a worker in 2025 is $1,077, and the cumulative minimum total of EI premiums paid to qualify at 30% of the maximum would be at least $1,491 in EI premiums paid. Given that the last 5 and 7 years include the pandemic period, it may be the case that there are far fewer “long-tenured workers” than in previous economic downturns when the Government has introduced special measures like extending the maximum benefits to 70 weeks (in 2016).
Now for the parts that should be generating ALL kinds of questions.
One of the conditions of receiving EI regular benefits is that unemployed persons have to take steps to show they are actively seeking employment. Per the Digest of Benefit Principles: “Claimants are expected to take advantage of any opportunity of suitable employment, or make good use of any favourable circumstances that might lead to immediate re-employment. They do so by showing interest and prudence in their dealings with potential employers, and by acting in a way that will encourage, rather than discourage employers from offering them suitable employment” (s.9.2.3). The EI Act makes it possible to disqualify someone from continuing to collect regular benefits if a government official reviewing their file determines they aren’t taking that obligation seriously (see excerpt below):
One of the changes the PM announced today is that the Government of Canada will be:
automatically registering [regular ?] EI recipients for the existing Job Bank database maintained by the Government of Canada. Job Bank is a national publicly-operated database of job postings. As far as I can tell, registering for Job Bank is currently recommended but not required for EI regular beneficiaries, so long as beneficiaries are showing other signs of job search.
“integrating AI on the Job Bank platform”, maybe using Cohere (based on a past MOU), it’s not clear, and “partnering with” private, for-profit “companies like Indeed, Jobillico, Career Beacon and Zip Recruiter”.
Maybe this is all benign. Maybe this is about reducing administrative burdens on EI recipients so that they get access to an additional service of the Government of Canada, that might give them info on available jobs, all while living up to the Government’s many legal responsibilities to protect individual private data. The Government is also promising that, by late November, Job Bank registrants will have access to a personalized “dashboard” to help them find work that aligns with their skills. The”dashboard” function on Job Bank already exists, but only for users who hand over additional personal data, like their social insurance number.
But maybe there are major shifts in public policy here that merit scrutiny. For example:
What’s the functional role of the AI tool to be “integrated” and what is the training data for it?
What happens to the additional data that same AI tool collects once deployed and who owns it?
What are the roles of the for-profit employment advertising firms in this new partnership?
How will the Government get informed consent for the use of personal data and what other bodies will have access to that data and for what purposes?
With automatic registration, will job applications through Job Bank become mandatory, even if EI beneficiaries are using other methods to seek employment?
In the worst-cast scenario, could a regular benefit recipient become disqualified from benefits if the AI tool integrated into Job Bank determines they haven’t applied for suitable employment?
Let’s hope not. But let’s maybe ask.
I haven’t been able to find any mainstream media coverage of this particular part of the PM’s announcement. To be fair, it was a major news dump on a Friday in the first week back to school. But this matters. This deserves more attention and good questions that the government, any government, should be eager and able to anticipate and answer.