Employment Insurance Regulations - Amendments

The following information is out of date.

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1. The Employment Insurance Regulations¹ are amended by adding the following after section 77.2:

77.3 (1) Pilot Project No. 7 is established for the purpose of testing whether paying benefits based on calculating the rate of weekly benefits using the insurable earnings from a claimant's 14 highest weeks of insurable earnings in the qualifying period would encourage claimants to accept all available work.

(2) Pilot Project No. 7 applies in respect of every claimant whose benefit period is established on or after October 30, 2005 and who is ordinarily resident in a region described in Schedule I that is set out in Schedule II.3 , other than a claimant in respect of whom the Employment Insurance (Fishing) Regulations apply.

(3) For the purposes of Pilot Project No. 7,

(a) subsections 14(2), (4) and (4.1) of the Act do not apply;

(b) the reference in subsection 14(3) of the Act to "the rate calculation period" shall be read as a reference to "the qualifying period";

(c) the references in section 24.1 of these Regulations to "the rate calculation period" shall be read as references to "the qualifying period";

(d) section 24.2 of these Regulations does not apply;

(e) the insurable earnings in a claimant's qualifying period shall be the aggregate of

• (i) the insurable earnings from not more than the 14 highest weeks of insurable earnings in that period, not including any insurable earnings paid or payable to the claimant in the qualifying period under section 24.1, and
  
• (ii) any insurable earnings paid or payable to the claimant in the qualifying period under section 24.1; and

(f) a claimant's weekly insurable earnings shall be determined by dividing the insurable earnings in the claimant's qualifying period, determined in accordance with paragraph (e), by 14.

(4) If a claimant's insurable earnings have been reported on the record of employment by pay period, the Commission shall

(a) allocate the amount of insurable earnings proportionately over the pay period; or

(b) where the claimant or the employer provides evidence of the amount of insurable earnings actually earned by the claimant in any week within the pay period, allocate the amount of insurable earnings proportionately over the other weeks in that pay period.

2. Schedule I to the Regulations is amended by replacing the reference "(Subsection 18(1))" after the heading "SCHEDULE I" with the reference "(Subsections 18(1), 77.2(2) and 77.3(2))".

3. The Regulations are amended by adding, after Schedule II.2, the schedule set out in the schedule to these Regulations. 

4. These Regulations come into force on October 30, 2005 .

Central Quebec
Chicoutimi—Jonquière
Eastern Nova Scotia
Gaspésie—Îles-de-la-Madeleine
Lower Saint Lawrence and North Shore
Madawaska-Charlotte
Newfoundland/Labrador
North Western Quebec
Northern Alberta
Northern British Columbia
Northern Manitoba
Northern Ontario
Northern Saskatchewan
Northwest Territories
Nunavut
Prince Edward Island
Restigouche-Albert
Southern Coastal British Columbia
St. John's
Sudbury
Trois-Rivières
Western Nova Scotia
Yukon

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¹ SOR/96-332