Employment Insurance Regulations (SOR/96-332)

Adaptation of the Act and these Regulations

76.02 For the purposes of this Part, the Act and these Regulations are adapted as provided in this Part.

DIVISION 2Premium Reduction System

Standards

76.03 A provincial plan shall, beginning on the day on which it takes effect, meet the following requirements:

• (a) the plan must provide for the payment of provincial benefits;

• (b) the plan must, at a minimum, cover substantially the same persons as those who are insured persons under the Act;

• (c) the global amount of provincial benefits payable to a person under the plan must be substantially equivalent to or greater than the global amount of benefits payable to a claimant under section 22 or 23 of the Act;

• (d) the plan must provide that an applicant who has received at least one week of provincial benefits under it shall continue to receive such benefits for their full period of entitlement, even if, after receiving that first week of benefits, they become a resident of a different province;

• (e) the plan must provide for premium adjustment payments to be made to the Receiver General by the province where the plan is established in respect of employer’s and employee’s premiums paid under the plan in respect of employees who are not covered by the plan because of their residency; and

• (f) the plan must provide for the sharing, by the province with the Government of Canada, of information obtained in the course of administering the plan that is necessary for the administration of a premium reduction system established by this Part, as well as information prepared from that information.

Premium Reduction

76.04 The employee’s and employer’s premiums payable under sections 67 and 68 of the Act, respectively, shall be reduced as provided by section 76.05 if the payment of provincial benefits to insured persons under a provincial plan would have the effect referred to in subsection 69(2) of the Act in respect of benefits payable to those persons under section 22 or 23 of the Act.

76.041 [Repealed, SOR/2010-301, s. 2]

76.05 The premium reduction to be applied to employer’s and employee’s premiums shall be calculated by applying the premium reduction rate determined in accordance with section 76.06.

• 76.06 (1) The premium reduction rate for a year is the rate determined by subtracting the rate determined under paragraph (b) from the rate determined under paragraph (a) and by rounding off the difference in accordance with section 66.4 of the Act:

  • (a) the rate determined by adding the following results, namely,

    • (i) the result obtained by dividing the estimated total amount of all benefits that will be paid under sections 22, 23, 152.04 and 152.05 of the Act in respect of that year to all claimants who are not covered by a provincial plan or any other similar plan established under a provincial law by the sum of the estimated total amount of insurable earnings in that year multiplied by 2.4 and the estimated amount of self-employed earnings in that year, taking into consideration the maximum yearly insurable earnings for the year as calculated under section 4 of the Act, of self-employed persons who have entered into — or will enter into during that year — an agreement under section 152.02 of the Act, of all persons who are not covered by such a plan, and

    • (ii) the result obtained by dividing the estimated total amount of the variable administrative costs that will be incurred in that year to provide benefits under sections 22, 23, 152.04 and 152.05 of the Act to all claimants who are not covered by a provincial plan or any other similar plan established under a provincial law by the sum of the estimated total amount of insurable earnings in that year multiplied by 2.4 and the estimated amount of self-employed earnings in that year, taking into consideration the maximum yearly insurable earnings for the year as calculated under section 4 of the Act, of self-employed persons who have entered into — or will enter into during that year — an agreement under section 152.02 of the Act, of all persons who are not covered by such a plan; and

  • (b) the rate determined by adding the following results, namely,

    • (i) the result obtained by dividing the estimated total amount of all benefits that will be paid under sections 22, 23, 152.04 and 152.05 of the Act in respect of that year to all claimants who are covered by a provincial plan or any other similar plan established under a provincial law by the sum of the estimated total amount of insurable earnings in that year multiplied by 2.4 and the estimated amount of self-employed earnings in that year, taking into consideration the maximum yearly insurable earnings for the year as calculated under section 4 of the Act, of self-employed persons who have entered into — or will enter into during that year — an agreement under section 152.02 of the Act, of all persons who are covered by such a plan, and

    • (ii) the result obtained by dividing the estimated total amount of the variable administrative costs that will be incurred in that year to provide benefits under sections 22, 23, 152.04 and 152.05 of the Act to all claimants who are covered by a provincial plan or any other similar plan established under a provincial law by the sum of the estimated total amount of insurable earnings in that year multiplied by 2.4 and the estimated amount of self-employed earnings in that year, taking into consideration the maximum yearly insurable earnings for the year as calculated under section 4 of the Act, of self-employed persons who have entered into — or will enter into during that year — an agreement under section 152.02 of the Act, of all persons who are covered by such a plan.

• (2) Actuarial estimates shall be used to determine the estimated amounts referred to in subsection (1).

• (3) The results referred to in paragraphs (1)(a) and (b) shall be determined having regard to the same factors as those set out in section 66 of the Act.

76.07 The premium reduction rate determined under section 76.06 is to be published in Part 1 of the Canada Gazette by the Commission as soon as feasible after it is determined.

76.08 The reimbursement amount paid by the Province of Quebec in accordance with section 4.5 of the Entente finale Canada-Québec sur le régime québécois d’assurance parentale, signed on March 1, 2005, shall be paid to the Receiver General and shall be considered as if it were an amount required to be paid into the Consolidated Revenue Fund under section 72 of the Act and shall be paid into that Fund.

DIVISION 3Entitlement

Disentitlement

• 76.09 (1) Subject to subsection (2), every claimant is disentitled to be paid benefits under section 22 or 23 of the Act if they are entitled to receive provincial benefits under a provincial plan.

• (2) Subsection (1) does not apply if, at the request of the claimant, it is determined by the Commission that the amount of provincial benefits the claimant is entitled to receive under the provincial plan is not substantially equivalent to or greater than the amount of benefits that they are entitled to receive under section 22 or 23 of the Act.

• (3) Every claimant who has received, or has applied for and is entitled to receive, provincial benefits under a provincial plan in respect of any week is disentitled to be paid benefits in respect of that same week under

  • (a) Part I of the Act, other than benefits under section 22 or 23 of the Act; or

  • (b) the Employment Insurance (Fishing) Regulations.

• (4) For greater certainty, subsections (1) to (3) apply in respect of a claimant who has applied for and is entitled to receive provincial benefits under a provincial plan even if the claimant, after making that application, ceases to reside in the province where that plan was established.

• (5) For greater certainty, if two persons are caring for the same child or children and one of them is a claimant referred to in subsection (4),

  • (a) subsections (1) to (3) apply in respect of the other person if that other person is an insured person; and

  • (b) subsections 76.36(1) to (3) apply in respect of the other person if that other person is a self-employed person.

76.1 [Repealed, SOR/2016-206, s. 3]

Insured Participant — Part II of the Act

76.11 The definition insured participant in section 58 of the Act is adapted to include an insured person who requests assistance under employment benefits and, when requesting the assistance, is an unemployed person who has a benefit period established under a provincial plan or has had that benefit period end within the previous 60 months and who would have been entitled to receive special benefits under section 22 or 23 of the Act had they not been entitled to provincial benefits.

76.12 [Repealed, SOR/2016-206, s. 5]

Week Not Counted to Extend Qualifying Period

76.13 The reference to “a week during which the person was in receipt of benefits” in subsection 8(5) of the Act shall be read as including a week for which the person was paid provincial benefits within the meaning of this Part or Part III.2.

Extension of the Benefit Period

76.14 For the purpose of extending a claimant’s benefit period under subsection 10(13) of the Act,

• (a) a reference in that subsection to benefits paid for one of the reasons mentioned in paragraphs 12(3)(a) and (b) of the Act is considered to include a reference to provincial benefits paid for the same reasons; and

• (b) the reference in that subsection to “the benefit period is extended so that those benefits may be paid up to that maximum total number of weeks” shall be read as a reference to “the benefit period is extended so that those benefits paid for one of the reasons mentioned in paragraphs 12(3)(c) to (f) may be paid up to the applicable maximum number of weeks established for those reasons”.

76.15 If the child or children of a claimant who has received or is entitled to receive provincial benefits are hospitalized during the period referred to in subsection 23(2) of the Act, the claimant’s benefit period is considered to be extended under subsection 10(12) of the Act by the number of weeks during which the child or children are hospitalized.

Reduction of Benefits

76.16 The benefits payable under section 22 or 23 of the Act to a claimant in respect of any week in respect of which the claimant has received or is entitled to receive provincial benefits shall be reduced as provided by section 76.17.

76.17 An amount equal to the amount of the provincial benefits that a claimant has received or is entitled to receive in respect of any week under a provincial plan shall be deducted from the amount of benefits payable under section 22 or 23 of the Act to the claimant in respect of that same week, in addition to any deductions referred to in section 19 and subsections 22(5) and 23(3.5) of the Act.

No Double Counting of Weeks

76.18 If a week of provincial benefits has been taken into account for the purpose of any of sections 76.11 to 76.14 or 76.19, a week of benefits paid under section 22 or 23 of the Act shall not be taken into account for that same purpose.

Payment of Benefits

• 76.19 (1) Subject to subsection (2), the provincial benefits paid to a claimant in respect of a week in a benefit period are considered to be benefits paid in respect of a week under the Act if the claimant would have been entitled to the corresponding types of benefits under the Act, and any week in respect of which the claimant receives provincial benefits counts as a week for the purpose of calculating

  • (a) the overall maximum number of weeks for which benefits may be paid in a benefit period under paragraphs 12(3)(a) and (b) of the Act taken together; and

  • (b) the maximum number of weeks for which benefits may be paid under subsection 12(4) of the Act.

• (1.1) A benefit period is deemed to be established when a benefit period was established under a provincial law, and it is deemed to have begun the same week as the period established under the provincial law if the claimant would have been entitled to the corresponding types of benefits under the Act in respect of the same period.

• (2) Where a provincial plan provides for the optional payment of provincial benefits at an accelerated rate, such that the maximum amount of a particular type of provincial benefit payable under the plan may be paid to the claimant over fewer weeks, and the claimant is paid those benefits at the accelerated rate, the number of weeks of benefits that those weeks of provincial benefits represent under the Act shall be determined by multiplying the number of weeks of the particular type of provincial benefits paid to the claimant by the result obtained by dividing the maximum number of such weeks of benefits payable at the nonaccelerated rate by the maximum number of such weeks of benefits payable at the accelerated rate.

• (3) If the determination of the number of weeks under subsection (2) results in a number that contains a fraction of a week, the number shall be rounded to the nearest multiple of one week or, if the amount is equidistant from two multiples of one week, to the higher multiple.