IRPP REPORT - Financing Employment Insurance Reform: Finding the Right Balance

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The authors and the IRPP would like to thank the EI financing workshop participants (listed in the appendix) for their contributions to the development of this report, and Employment and Social Development Canada for its financial support of the work- shop. [...] n The report considers adjustments to three financing levers to cover the near- term costs of program reform and to stabilize the EI account: raising the level of maximum insurable earnings; adjusting the premium rate-setting mecha- nism; and expanding the role of the federal government in EI financing. [...] n The analysis highlights the difficult trade-off between the coverage and gener- osity of the program and premiums paid by workers and businesses, but also highlights a range of options to finance modernization, improve stability in premiums and preserve the long-term sustainability of the EI account. [...] RETHINKING THE ROLE OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT Perspectives on the role of the federal government in EI financing are closely linked to views on the purpose of the EI program. [...] In response to economic downturns in 2008-09, following the collapse in global commodity prices in 2014 and in the aftermath of the pandemic, the government fi- nanced extended benefits and at times covered part of the deficit in the EI account.