Employment Insurance Regulations - Amendments

The following information is out of date.

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Description

 

The present regulatory changes expand upon amendments made to the Employment Insurance Act (EI Act) that came into force on July 31, 2000, with the coming into force of the majority of provisions in Bill C-23 (the Modernization of Benefits and Obligations Act). They ensure that the Employment insurance (EI) program will afford common-law same-sex partners the same benefits and obligations provided to common-law opposite-sex partners.

 

Bill C-23 made changes to 68 federal statutes in order to ensure that common-law partners, whether opposite sex or same-sex, are treated the same.

 

Accordingly, at this time there are four minor regulatory changes that need to be made to the Employment Insurance Regulations (EI Regulations). The first regulatory change is necessary to establish a parallel with the Income Tax Act (ITA), namely a change to section 122.6 of the ITA, which adds a definition of cohabiting spouse or common-law partner. Subsections 34(1), (3), (4) and (5) will be changed in both official versions: in English, by replacing the expression "cohabiting spouse" by "cohabiting spouse or common-law partner", and in French, the expression "conjoint visé" will be replaced by "époux ou conjoint de fait visé". This change also makes a minor housekeeping clarification to the French version of subsection 34(5) of the EI Regulations with the addition of the word "visé" to the present text.

 

The second provision makes two minor additions to the provisions governing "just cause" for voluntarily leaving a job that are found in paragraph 29(c) of the EI Act. A claimant who voluntarily leaves employment without just cause can be disqualified from receiving benefits pursuant to subsection 30(1) of the EI Act. While the term is not specifically defined in the Act, paragraph 29 (c), provides the test for "just cause" and lists a number of circumstances where it could exist. Therefore, in cases where the claimant is found to have just cause for voluntarily leaving employment, the claimant would not be disqualified from receiving benefits for that reason.

 

The regulatory changes reflect two situations that have already been held to constitute just cause for voluntary separation in EI case law. The first of the voluntarily leaving provisions provides that, as in the case of following a spouse, it may now be just cause to leave one’s job to follow a common-law partner:

 

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• who has been transferred; 
• if one of the partners has given or is about to give birth to a child; or 
• if a child has been placed with one of them for adoption. 

 

The second minor change is to ensure that there can be just cause to leave a job voluntarily if there is an obligation to care for a member of one’s immediate family, including where the person being cared for is a member of the claimant’s immediate family by virtue of a common-law relationship.

 

The final changes are minor adjustments to the wording of the French text to parallel the wording in the English version of the Act and a provision to change the definition of what constitutes a claimant’s immediate family in the "Outside of Canada" regulation. Generally, a claimant is not entitled to receive benefits for any period during which he is not in Canada (section 37 of EI Act). Regulation 55 (the "Outside of Canada regulation") sets out the only circumstances under which a claimant outside of Canada is not disentitled from receiving benefits and the number of weeks of benefit to which such a claimant is entitled. The definition of a claimant’s immediate family has been expanded to cover the same relationships when they arise out of a common-law relationship.

 

This impacts on the issue of voluntarily leaving employment as well. This is because quitting a job to take care of a member of one's immediate family can be considered as just cause, depending on all the circumstances.

 

Alternatives

 

These amendments are required to implement the provisions of Bill C-23 which will bring federal legislation, including the Employment Insurance Act and 67 other statutes, into conformity with the Charter and with recent case law from the Supreme Court of Canada. The provisions of Bill C-23 and the changes to the EI Act and Regulations ensure that common-law partners, whether of the opposite or same sex, are treated equitably.

 

Benefits and Costs

 

The additional benefit and administrative costs of these regulatory changes will be minimal. They are consequential to the provisions of Bill C-23 which apply to the EI Act, and were included in the amounts that were approved by Cabinet when it was decided to proceed with Bill C-23 as an omnibus bill. It is estimated that the changes to both the EI Act and Regulations will cost overall about $3.25 million per year.

 

Consultation

 

These regulatory amendments were prepared by Human Resources Development Canada, Insurance Policy, in consultation with Insurance Program Services, Systems, and the Social Policy Development Group in Strategic Policy and Legal Services within Human Resources Development Canada (HRDC).

 

These changes are consequential to Bill C-23 and as such the principles in them were discussed in the House of Commons, the Senate and in detail before the Committees that deal with justice and human rights.

 

These proposals have been approved by the Employment Insurance Commission, which includes representatives of employers, employees and the government. Consultations have been carried out with the public at large by a prepublication of the Regulations in the Canada Gazette, Part I, on April 28, 2001, and no comments have been received.

 

Compliance and Enforcement

 

Existing compliance mechanisms contained in HRDC’s adjudication and control procedures will ensure that these changes are properly implemented.

 

 Contact
 
Johanne Goyette
Senior Policy Advisor
Policy and Legislation Development, Insurance Branch
Human Resources Development Canada
9th Floor, 140 Promenade du Portage
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0J9
(819) 994-8365 (Telephone)
(819) 953-9381 (Facsimile)
 

Past Amendments to Regulations, Analysis Statement, 2001-290