The Employment Insurance Program isn't working

Times are changing. Work is changing.
Canada's unemployment insurance (the EI Program)
needs to change too.

It needs to keep up with the times so people who work in today's economy can count on getting the benefits they need, when they need them.

EI must be made more accessible to today's working men and women. It also needs to provide better benefit entitlements.

After all, the money in the EI Program is workers' money. We pay for it. We should get the benefits.

Working people fought hard to win the right to unemployment insurance. They saw the devastation of the Great Depression when there was no income support for people who were out of work. Families and entire communities suffered the economic consequences.

Today it's one of our most valued social insurance programs. About 3 million Canadians receive EI benefits at some point during the year. These are workers who have been laid off, lost a job through no fault of their own, placed on work sharing, or on sick or parental leave.

What needs to be done?

There are specific changes we can make to the EI Program to move it closer to the modern, responsive unemployment insurance system we all need.