Canada’s unemployment insurance in crisis

The past several decades in Canada have been marked by systematic attempts to restructure the federally regulated unemployment insurance system, despite growing unemployment and the need for labour market relief. Several program changes, including tightening eligibility requirements, lowering benefits, increasing administrative burdens, limiting enrolment duration and intensifying surveillance have significantly impacted the level and quality of support available to some of the most vulnerable sections of the population. Although Canada weathered the 2008 crisis relatively well, it undertook similar cuts as some of the worst hit European Union members. In line with OECD recommendations, Canadian measures have been rationalised as a means of strengthening work incentives, stimulating growth and reducing deficits. The effect of the coronavirus has been to challenge these longstanding assumptions and policies, pointing to the need for expanded state efforts to cushion social and economic risks in the face of clear evidence of market failure.