Question Period Note: EMPLOYMENT INSURANCE (EI) SUPPORTS FOR WORKERS IMPACTED BY TARIFFS

What is the Government doing to ensure Employment Insurance is supporting workers impacted by foreign tariffs?

The government is committed to protecting and supporting workers in this period of uncertainty to ensure Canadians have the employment supports and skills they need for in-demand jobs.

Employment Insurance, including the Work-Sharing program, is critical to supporting workers. In extraordinary times like these, we have taken decisive action to ensure these supports are responsive.

In 2025, EI and Work-Sharing temporary measures are estimated to have helped avert over 17,000 layoffs and will provide unemployed workers with better income support, more time to find a job, and improved access to training opportunities.

EI-funded skills training and employment assistance will help 92,000 workers to get back to work more quickly and help employers access the talent they need to Build Canada Strong.

If pressed on why the extra weeks measure targets long-tenured workers:

The extra weeks of EI benefits measure will help support job transitions, providing long-tenured workers with a longer bridge to re-employment and allowing them to receive more income support while they retrain and look for work. As of November 30, 2025, more than 800 claims from long-tenured workers had benefitted from extra weeks. This number is expected to increase with time, as more claimants reach the end of their original claim period.

Temporary Employment Insurance Tariff-Response Measures

In March 2025, the Government of Canada established an Employment Insurance pilot project to test temporary measures to respond to major changes in economic conditions, providing additional income support and financial stability for workers impacted following the imposition and continued threat of tariffs. Measures being tested under this pilot project include:

Waiving the one-week Employment Insurance waiting period so claimants can receive benefits for their first week of unemployment, softening the shock of an income drop.

On September 5, 2025, the Government of Canada announced an extension of this measure by six months (investment of $418M over two years). As a result, it will apply to claims with a benefit period that begins between March 30, 2025, and April 11, 2026. No uptake data is available at this time.

Suspending the rules around treatment of monies paid on separation, including severance pay, so that claimants can receive Employment Insurance benefits sooner, as they can start receiving benefits from when they are laid off and not have to wait until they have exhausted these monies.

On September 5, 2025, the Government of Canada announced an extension of this measure by six months (investment of $424M over two years). As a result, this measure will apply to EI claims between March 30, 2025, and April 11, 2026, depending on either the beginning of their benefit period or when monies on separation deductions would begin. No uptake data is available at this time.

Providing 20 additional weeks of Employment Insurance benefits to long-tenured workers to provide them with more time to find a job similar to the one they have lost.

On September 5, 2025, the Government of Canada announced a new temporary measure that started in October 12, 2025 that would apply to claims with a benefit period that begins between June 15, 2025 and April 11, 2026 (investment of $1.6B over five years).

It is expected to benefit approximately 190,000 claimants. As of November 30, 2025, more than 800 claims had benefitted from extra weeks. This number is expected to increase with time, as more claimants reach the end of their original claim period.

For the purposes of this measure, long-tenured workers are those who have participated in the workforce for many years but made little use of EI regular and fishing benefits after job loss. Typically, they can have unique challenges for re-employment. They may need to update their skills, or be looking for a new job for the first time after many years. They may also be at increased risk of income declines and being vulnerable to future job losses. This is especially challenging in an economy that is rapidly changing and weakened due to the impact of tariffs. As a result of these challenges, long-tenured workers may need more time to find a job that is similar to the one they have lost.

Adjusting the Employment Insurance regional unemployment rates up by one percentage point in all Employment Insurance regions (to a maximum of 13.1%) with no region seeing an unemployment rate of less than 7.1%, reducing the number of hours of insurable employment required to qualify for regular benefits to no higher than 630 hours and increasing the regular benefit entitlement by up to four additional weeks (expired October 11, 2025).

This measure applied to claims with a benefit period that began between April 6, 2025 and October 11, 2025.

Preliminary data show that, as of December 1, 2025, the implementation of the unemployment rate measure has increased the entitlement to regular benefits for over 652,220 claimants and enabled roughly 13,900 workers to qualify for EI. Beneficiaries include over 26,655 workers in tariff-exposed sectors (i.e., autos, steel, aluminum, copper, and softwood lumber).

The measure has not been extended, as EI unemployment rates have gradually increased allowing the EI program time to adjust and continue to reflect local labour market conditions.

Work-Sharing

The Work-Sharing program helps employers and employees avoid layoffs when there is a decrease in business activity beyond the employer's control. The program provides income support for eligible employees who work a temporarily reduced work week.

Through Work-Sharing, employers can retain skilled workers and avoid the expensive process of recruiting and training new employees when their business returns to normal levels by employees working a reduced workweek instead of being laid off. It also helps employees maintain their skills and jobs by supplementing their wages with Work-Sharing benefits for the days they are not working.

The following temporary Work-Sharing flexibilities are in place between March 7, 2025 and March 6, 2026 for businesses impacted by tariffs:

The maximum duration of a Work-Sharing agreement is extended from 38 weeks to up to 76 weeks.

The requirement to serve a cooling-off period between successive Work Sharing agreements is being waived.

Employer eligibility is expanded to include: 

businesses that have been in operation in Canada for 1 year;

non-profit and charitable organizations experiencing a reduction in revenue levels as a direct or indirect result of the tariffs;

cyclical or seasonal employers; and,

employers experiencing a decrease in work activity of less than 10% and allowing utilization of Work-Sharing to exceed 60%.

Employee eligibility under the Program is expanded to include workers who are: 

not year-round, permanent, full-time or part-time employees, specifically seasonal or cyclical employees; and  

not necessarily needed to carry out the day-to-day functions of the business, but who are assisting in the employer’s recovery efforts.

Reporting requirements are simplified to focus on maintaining business viability in the face of tariffs (instead of a plan to return to normal business, as is normally required).

Work-Sharing applications have grown for the January to December period (95% higher than for the same period last year), reaching a total of close to 1,700 applications as of November 15, 2025, with 81% of them related to tariffs.

Almost 1,300 tariff-related agreements have been approved, expecting to help prevent more than 17,000 layoffs and affecting roughly 42,000 employees.

Machinery (Except Electrical) and Fabricated Metal Products are the most vulnerable industries with the highest number of applications (343), the majority of which have been submitted by businesses operating in Quebec (87) and Ontario (184).

As part of a broader announcement related to new initiatives to support the Canadian steel and softwood lumber industry in the face of tariffs, the Prime Minister announced on November 26, 2025 that Canada will provide support to eligible employers in all sectors with an active Work-Sharing agreement and who commit to supporting training for their employees working reduced hours.

EI-Funded Investments in Employment Assistance and Retraining

In summer 2025, the Government of Canada announced EI-funded investments in support of workers impacted by trade disruptions to provide them with career services, skills training, and re-employment supports (tailored to each sector’s needs) via provincial and territorial employment assistance networks:

On July 16, 2025, an investment of $70M was announced to provide training and income supports for up to 10,000 impacted steel sector workers.

On August 5, 2025, an investment of $50 million was announced, for the provision of upskilling, reskilling, and income supports for more than 6,000 affected softwood lumber workers.

On September 5, 2025, an additional investment of $450M over three years was announced, to retrain and upskill up to 50,000 more workers across Canada and across sectors.

On September 5, 2025, the Government of Canada also announced it will be creating new workforce alliances which will be focused on reskilling and upskilling Canadians for new job opportunities and significant improvements to Canada’s Job Bank which will more easily and quickly match Canadian workers with available jobs.

The Government of Canada currently provides $2.9 billion annually to provide training and employment assistance services via provincial and territorial employment assistance offices across Canada to help hundreds of thousands of Canadians upgrade their skills and find employment.

New Employment Insurance applicants are referred to local employment offices for customized training and employment services, informed by career development officers that have real-time labour market information and knowledge of local employment opportunities.

KEY FACTS

The rapidly changing global trade landscape, including the introduction of tariffs from the United States (U.S.) and other trading partners is unprecedented. These tariffs are having significant impacts on the Canadian economy, including layoffs in all regions and sectors.

It is estimated that hundreds of thousands of jobs could be affected by a prolonged economic downturn, resulting in worker displacement and increased need for training, upskilling and employment assistance for workers in industries undergoing restructuring and transition.

The manufacturing industry is being significantly affected by the introduction of tariffs from the United States on Canadian goods, given that approximately 40% of jobs depend on Canadian exports to the United States. Amongst the most trade-exposed sectors are some pillars of the Canadian economy such as the steel and softwood lumber industries

The EI Work-Sharing program is a key tool and primary line of defence to help prevent layoffs by helping employers retain their employees and workers keep their job during a temporary downturn in business. In March 2025, the Government of Canada introduced temporary enhancements to facilitate access and expand the duration of Work-Sharing agreements.

The Government also introduced EI flexibilities to support workers affected by tariffs, including:

Waiving the one-week waiting period (ending April 11, 2026);

Suspending some EI rules around the treatment of monies on separation (ending April 11, 2026);

Making it easier to access benefits by adjusting regional unemployment rates so no worker needs more than 630 hours to qualify (no longer in place - ended October 11, 2025).

In summer of 2025, additional funding provided for EI-funded training opportunities to approximately 66,000 workers in the steel and softwood lumber sectors, as well as other tariff-impacted strategic industries via provincial and territorial training and employment assistance networks.

On September 5, 2025, additional workforce measures announced, including six-month extensions to April 11, 2026 for two of the temporary EI measures that suspend the rules on treatment of monies on separation and waive the one-week EI waiting period. A new EI tariff measure was also introduced that provides 20 extra weeks of income support for long-tenured workers.

Most recently, the Prime Minister announced on November 26, 2025 that Canada will provide support to eligible employers in all sectors of the economy who have an active Work-Sharing agreement and who commit to supporting training for their employees that are working reduced hours. This measure will allow employers to top-up EI benefits of their employees participating in training, on the days they are not working.

The temporary EI measures introduced this year have already improved support for hundreds of thousands of workers. For example, as of December 2025:

Over 650,000 claims have benefited from the additional supports provided by the temporary measure that adjusted the unemployment rate;

Over 165,000 claims and more than 800 long-tenured workers have access to the 20 extra weeks measure;

Over 36,000 employees and 1,000 employers are currently participating in Work-Sharing across sectors and an estimated 17,000 layoffs have been prevented through the program.

The temporary measure that increased access to EI by adjusting the EI unemployment rates as of April 6, 2025, ended on October 11, 2025. Unemployment rates have gradually increased allowing the EI program time to adjust and continue to reflect local labour market conditions, including in EI regions with high concentrations of workers in trade-exposed sectors. Employment and Social Development Canada continues to closely monitor EI unemployment rates and job losses to be alert to any developing access issues.