Employment Insurance Act (S.C. 1996, c. 23)

Marginal note:Information provided

• 66.1 (1) The Minister shall, on or before July 22 in a year, provide the actuary and the Commission with the following information:

  • (a) if the Minister has made an announcement referred to in paragraph 66(2)(e), the forecast change in the amount of the payments to be made during each of the following seven years under paragraph 77(1)(a), (b) or (c), as the case may be;

  • (b) the forecast costs to be paid under paragraphs 77(1)(d), (d.1) and (g) during each of the following seven years, including any forecast change in those costs resulting from any change to the payments referred to in paragraph (a);

  • (c) the total of the amounts charged to the Employment Insurance Operating Account as of the last day of the most recent month for which that total is known by the Minister; and

  • (d) any prescribed information.

• Marginal note:Regulations

  (2) On the recommendation of the Minister, the Governor in Council may make regulations prescribing information referred to in paragraph (1)(d).

Marginal note:Information provided

• 66.2 (1) The Minister of Finance shall, on or before July 22 in a year, provide the actuary and the Commission with the following information:

  • (a) the most current available forecast values of the economic variables that are relevant to the determination under section 66 of a premium rate for the following year;

  • (b) the amounts forecast under subparagraphs 77.1(a)(i) and (ii) and the total estimated under subparagraph 77.1(a)(iii); and

  • (c) any prescribed information.

• Marginal note:Regulations

  (2) On the recommendation of the Minister of Finance, the Governor in Council may make regulations prescribing information referred to in paragraph (1)(c).

Marginal note:Actuary’s report

66.3 The actuary shall prepare actuarial forecasts and estimates for the purposes of sections 4, 66 and 69 and shall, on or before August 22 in a year, provide the Commission with a report that sets out

• (a) the forecast premium rate for the following year and a detailed analysis in support of the forecast;

• (b) the calculations performed for the purposes of sections 4 and 69;

• (c) the information provided under section 66.1; and

• (d) the source of the data, the actuarial and economic assumptions and the actuarial methodology used.

Marginal note:Report and summary

• 66.31 (1) The Commission shall, on or before August 31 in a year, provide the Minister and the Minister of Finance with the report referred to in section 66.3 and a summary of that report.

• Marginal note:Available to public

  (2) The Commission shall, on the day on which a premium rate is set under section 66 or 66.32, make available to the public the report and its summary.

• Marginal note:Tabling in Parliament

  (3) After a premium rate is set, the Minister shall cause the report and its summary to be laid before each House of Parliament on any of the next 10 days during which that House is sitting.

Marginal note:Premium rate setting by Governor in Council

• 66.32 (1) On the joint recommendation of the Minister and the Minister of Finance, the Governor in Council may, on or before September 30 in a year,

  • (a) if the Governor in Council considers it to be in the public interest, substitute a premium rate for the following year that is different from the one set by the Commission under section 66; or

  • (b) if the Commission has not set a premium rate under that section by September 14 in the year, set one for the following year.

• Marginal note:Non-application of subsection 66(7)

  (2) Subsection 66(7) does not apply to the setting of the premium rate under subsection (1).

Marginal note:Rounding percentage rates

66.4 If the calculation of a premium rate under section 66 or 66.32 results in a rate that includes a fraction of one per cent, the resulting percentage is to be rounded to the nearest one hundredth of one per cent or, if the resulting percentage is equidistant from two one-hundredths of one percent, to the higher of them.

Marginal note:Publication in Canada Gazette

66.5 As soon as possible after a premium rate is set under section 66 or 66.32, the Commission shall publish it in Part I of the Canada Gazette.

Marginal note:Service Fees Act

66.6 For greater certainty, the Service Fees Act does not apply in respect of the premium rate set under section 66 or 66.32 or the premiums determined under sections 67 and 68.

Marginal note:Employee’s premium

67 Subject to section 70, a person employed in insurable employment shall pay, by deduction as provided in subsection 82(1), a premium equal to their insurable earnings multiplied by the premium rate set under section 66 or 66.32, as the case may be.

Marginal note:Employer’s premium

68 Subject to sections 69 and 70, an employer shall pay a premium equal to 1.4 times the employees’ premiums that the employer is required to deduct under subsection 82(1).

Marginal note:Premium reduction — wage-loss plans

• 69 (1) The Commission shall, with the approval of the Governor in Council, make regulations to provide a system for reducing the employer’s premium when

  • (a) the payment of any allowances, money or other benefits because of illness, injury, quarantine, pregnancy, child care, compassionate care, a child’s critical illness or an adult’s critical illness under a plan that covers insured persons employed by the employer, other than one established under a provincial law, would have the effect of reducing the special benefits payable to the insured persons; and

  • (b) the insured persons will benefit from the reduction of the employer’s premium in an amount at least equal to 5/12 of the reduction.

• Marginal note:Provincial plans

  (2) The Commission shall, with the approval of the Governor in Council, make regulations to provide a system for reducing the employer’s and employee’s premiums, the premiums under Part VII.1 or all those premiums, when the payment of any allowances, money or other benefits because of illness, injury, quarantine, pregnancy, child care, compassionate care, a child’s critical illness or an adult’s critical illness under a provincial law to insured persons, or to self-employed persons, as the case may be, would have the effect of reducing or eliminating the special benefits payable to those insured persons or the benefits payable to those self-employed persons.

• Marginal note:Included provisions

  (3) The regulations may include provisions

  • (a) prescribing the manner and time for making an application for a premium reduction;

  • (b) prescribing the standards that must be met by a plan to qualify for a premium reduction and the time during which the plan must be in effect;

  • (c) prescribing the method for determining the amount of reduction for plans that meet the prescribed standards and the use to be made of actuarial calculations and estimates;

  • (d) prescribing the manner in which insured persons are to benefit from the premium reduction;

  • (e) providing for the making of decisions relating to premium reduction and appeals in cases of dispute;

  • (f) prescribing how the insured earnings of insured persons will be reported by employers to the Canada Revenue Agency; and

  • (g) generally, providing for any other matters necessary for carrying out the purposes and provisions of subsections (1) and (2).

• Marginal note:Late applications

  (4) If an application for an employer’s premium reduction is made within 36 months after the time prescribed for making it, the Commission may, subject to prescribed conditions, regard the application as having been made at the prescribed time if the applicant shows that there was good cause for the delay throughout the period beginning at the prescribed time and ending on the day when the application was made.

• Marginal note:Reconsideration of application

  (5) The Commission may reconsider any decision relating to an employer’s premium reduction within 36 months after the date of the decision and any new decision that it makes shall apply in place of the reconsidered decision.

• Marginal note:Definition

  (6) The reference to the payment of allowances, money or other benefits because of compassionate care in subsections (1) and (2) means the payment of allowances, money or other benefits for the same or substantially the same reasons for which benefits are payable under section 23.1.

• Marginal note:Reference

  (7) The reference to the payment of allowances, money or other benefits because of a child’s critical illness in subsections (1) and (2) means the payment of allowances, money or other benefits for the same or substantially the same reasons for which benefits are payable under section 23.2.

• Marginal note:Reference

  (8) The reference to the payment of allowances, money or other benefits because of an adult’s critical illness in subsections (1) and (2) means the payment of allowances, money or other benefits for the same or substantially the same reasons for which benefits are payable under section 23.3.

Marginal note:Overlapping pay periods

70 If insurable earnings are paid to a person after the end of the year in which their insurable employment occurred, the insurable employment is, for the purposes of determining insurable earnings and premiums payable, deemed to have occurred in the year in which the insurable earnings are paid.

70.1 [Repealed, 2012, c. 19, s. 613]

Employment Insurance Operating Account

Marginal note:Employment Insurance Operating Account established

70.2 There is established in the accounts of Canada an account to be known as the Employment Insurance Operating Account.

71 [Repealed, 2010, c. 12, s. 2186]

Marginal note:Payment into Consolidated Revenue Fund

72 There shall be paid into the Consolidated Revenue Fund

• (a) all amounts received under Parts I and III to IX, as or on account of premiums, fines, penalties, interest, repayment of overpaid benefits and benefit repayment;

• (b) all amounts collected by the Commission for services rendered to other government departments or agencies or to the public; and

• (c) all amounts received on account of principal or interest on loans made by the Commission under Part II or as repayment of overpayments made by the Commission under that Part.

Marginal note:Credits to Employment Insurance Operating Account

73 There shall be credited to the Employment Insurance Operating Account and charged to the Consolidated Revenue Fund

• (a) an amount in each year equal to the amount receivable as or on account of premiums payable for that year under this Act;

• (b) any other amounts provided out of the Consolidated Revenue Fund appropriated by Parliament for any purpose related to employment insurance and administered by the Commission; and

• (c) an amount equal to all benefit repayments receivable under Part VII.

Marginal note:Benefit enhancements under this Act

73.1 There shall be credited to the Employment Insurance Operating Account on August 1, 2010 the amount determined by the Minister of Finance that corresponds to the cost of the benefit enhancement measures under this Act, provided for in the budget tabled in Parliament on January 27, 2009 in which the cost is estimated to be $2,900,000,000.

Marginal note:Government premiums

74 There shall be credited to the Employment Insurance Operating Account and charged to the Consolidated Revenue Fund an amount equal to the premiums required to be paid by Her Majesty in right of Canada as employer’s premiums for persons employed in insurable employment by Her Majesty in right of Canada.

Marginal note:Other credits to Employment Insurance Operating Account

75 There shall be credited to the Employment Insurance Operating Account all amounts paid into the Consolidated Revenue Fund that are

• (a) received as or on account of penalties imposed under section 38, 39 or 65.1 and repayments of overpaid benefits, except interest and penalties on benefit repayment;

• (b) collected by the Commission for services rendered to other government departments or agencies or to the public;

• (c) received on account of principal or interest on loans made by the Commission under Part II;

• (d) received as repayments of overpayments by the Commission under section 61 for employment support measures authorized by Part II;

• (e) received as repayments of overpayments by the Commission under agreements entered into under section 63; or

• (f) received as interest under section 80.1.