Employment Insurance Pilot Measures

Summary#

The final rule called Regulations Amending the Employment Insurance Regulations (Pilot Project No. 24) sets up a temporary 6-month EI pilot to make it easier for people to access Employment Insurance after large job losses. It was made by the Canada Employment Insurance Commission under the Employment Insurance Act and came into force when registered on March 23, 2025. The government estimates the pilot’s additional benefits total $1,013.3M, costs $1,069.2M, and a net cost of $55.9M (present value over two years).

What it does#

• Waives the usual one-week EI waiting period for benefit periods that begin between March 30, 2025 and October 11, 2025. This means eligible claimants (regular, special, and fishing benefits) can get paid for the first week of unemployment.
• Suspends the usual treatment of monies on separation (for example, severance or vacation pay) for regular-benefit claims whose benefit period begins between March 30, 2025 and October 11, 2025, or where those monies would be applied to weeks that start in that period. In practice this prevents severance from delaying or reducing EI payments for those claims.
• Temporarily raises the EI regional unemployment rates (applies to new benefit periods beginning between April 6, 2025 and July 12, 2025):
  • Add 1 percentage point to the regional rate, up to a maximum of 13.1%.
  • Set a minimum regional rate of 7.1%.
  • This change can reduce the hours needed to qualify, increase benefit weeks, and raise weekly benefit amounts for some claimants.
• The pilot is implemented by the federal service delivery system and will be evaluated after it ends.

Who's affected#

• Workers who lose jobs and apply for EI regular, special, or fishing benefits during the pilot periods. The government warned that tariffs could put hundreds of thousands of jobs at risk and estimated about 415,000 additional EI claims in a tariff scenario; the pilot itself is expected to produce about 80,800 new claims that would not otherwise be filed.
• Workers in trade-exposed sectors named in the analysis, such as manufacturing, transportation, energy, agri-food, and construction, are likely to be among those most affected.
• EI premium payers (workers and employers) may see a small long‑run upward pressure on premiums — an estimated 0.65 cents per $100 of insurable earnings over seven years (split 0.27 cents paid by workers and 0.38 cents by employers).
• Service Canada and Employment and Social Development Canada will handle the operational work to apply the measures and monitor the pilot.

Why it matters#

• Faster access to money: Waiving the waiting week gives eligible unemployed people cash sooner, which can help if layoffs are sudden.
• Severance won’t block benefits: Suspending the deduction of monies on separation means severance or similar payments are less likely to postpone or reduce EI income when people need it.
• More people may qualify and get longer or larger benefits: Artificially increasing regional unemployment figures temporarily lowers the bar to qualify and can increase weeks or weekly amounts for many claimants.
• Cost and premiums: The pilot increases EI payments by an estimated $1,013.3M and raises total costs to $1,069.2M (present value), with a net cost of $55.9M, and a small effect on premiums over seven years.
• Temporary test, not a permanent change: This is a limited pilot to see how these measures work in a sudden downturn; the government plans to evaluate the results before considering permanent changes.