Canada’s New Employment Insurance Eligibility Rules Take Effect October 11

Canada’s revised Employment Insurance rules take effect Sunday, October 11, making it easier for some workers laid off after changing jobs to qualify for benefits. Under a new temporary rule, an earlier resignation or dismissal will not necessarily prevent hours from that job being counted if the person’s most recent employment ended through no fault of their own.

Known as Employment Insurance Pilot Project No. 25, the temporary framework also keeps the usual one-week waiting period suspended, protects certain separation payments from EI deductions and continues extended benefits for eligible long-tenured workers. Most of the measures will run through October 9, 2027, although the extension for long-tenured workers has an earlier deadline.

The regulations establishing the pilot were published in the Canada Gazette ahead of their October 11, 2026, effective date. They continue several protections from the previous pilot while introducing a different way to assess a claimant’s employment history. The new eligibility rule does not remove the basic requirements for EI regular benefits or make every voluntary resignation eligible for support.

Earlier job separations will not automatically disqualify hours

Under the usual rules, someone who quits a job without just cause or is dismissed for misconduct can have the hours and earnings from that employment excluded when their eligibility is assessed. If that person later loses a different job, the hours available for a new claim may be insufficient, even when they worked steadily over much of the qualifying period.

For benefit periods beginning from October 11, Service Canada will instead assess the reason for the most recent job separation when considering an initial claim. If the last job ended for an acceptable reason, such as a layoff or shortage of work, insurable hours and earnings accumulated during the qualifying period can count even when they came from an earlier job the worker left without just cause.

Consider someone who resigns from one position, takes a job with another employer and is subsequently laid off. Previously, their hours at the first workplace could have been excluded because of the resignation. During the temporary pilot, those hours may help establish eligibility if the later job loss meets EI requirements. The applicant must still satisfy the other conditions for receiving benefits.

Misconduct at the most recent job remains a barrier, as does leaving that job without just cause. The purpose is to avoid penalizing an earlier separation when a later loss of work would otherwise support an EI claim, not to remove the standards governing the final departure.

Claimants generally still need between 420 and 700 hours of insurable employment, depending on unemployment in their EI region. The qualifying period is normally the previous 52 weeks or the time since the start of a previous EI benefit period, whichever is shorter. Regular-benefit applicants must also meet availability and job-search conditions. What changes under the pilot is which hours and earnings can be used toward the claim, rather than the regional hours threshold itself.

The more flexible separation assessment is available for benefit periods starting from October 11, 2026, through October 9, 2027. It is not restricted to people employed directly in tariff-exposed industries, although trade disruption is a major reason the federal government introduced the pilot.

Waiting-period and severance protections continue

Pilot Project No. 25 also carries forward the waiver of the unpaid waiting week that would normally apply at the beginning of an eligible claim. The government says the waiver provides support for that first week but does not speed up Service Canada’s claim processing or increase the maximum amount of benefits a person can receive over their claim.

The waiting-period relief applies to qualifying benefit periods beginning through October 9, 2027, and covers regular, special and fishing benefits. There is a narrow practical consideration for workers covered by Supplemental Unemployment Benefit plans: serving the waiting week can sometimes be more advantageous because of an employer top-up arrangement, and the government allows that option.

Separation payments receive temporary protection as well. Without the temporary exception, amounts such as severance, vacation pay and pay in lieu of notice can be allocated as earnings, delaying the point at which EI becomes payable or reducing payments over particular weeks. During the pilot, those separation earnings are not deducted from EI benefits when the claim or the relevant allocation falls within the eligible period.

For example, a laid-off employee who receives severance may be able to receive EI benefits without first having the severance amount allocated across weeks of the claim. The exclusion is specific to payments arising from a separation; it should not be confused with a general exemption for all money earned while receiving EI.

Service Canada’s guidance on the temporary measures confirms the October 9, 2027, cutoff for these two protections. It also explains that the separation-pay rule can apply when the allocation of the payment begins within the qualifying window, even if the underlying claim started earlier. The timing of a separation payment therefore matters alongside the start date of the claim.

Long-tenured workers face a shorter window for extra weeks

Some people with a lengthy EI contribution history can qualify for 20 additional weeks of regular benefits, up to a maximum of 65 weeks. For this part of Pilot Project No. 25, the benefit period must begin no later than June 12, 2027. That cutoff comes nearly four months before the October expiration date for the broader measures.

Long-tenured status requires more than having worked for a long time. The regulations generally require fewer than 36 weeks of regular EI benefits in the preceding 156 weeks, along with EI premiums amounting to at least 30% of the annual maximum employee premium in seven of the relevant previous 10 years. The rules also address situations in which the most recent tax assessment has not been completed. A claimant must have received at least one week of qualifying benefits in the benefit period to receive the extension.

Ordinarily, EI regular benefits last between 14 and 45 weeks, with the precise entitlement determined largely by insurable hours and the regional unemployment rate. The temporary increase adds 20 weeks for people who meet its conditions, but 65 weeks is a ceiling, not a flat award for everyone. Workers who qualify for one of the pilot’s other measures do not necessarily qualify for the longer benefit period.

For claims beginning next summer, that earlier expiry date will matter. A worker who starts a claim after June 12, 2027, may still fall within the temporary waiting-period waiver or the revised separation assessment, but that claim would not qualify for the 20-week long-tenured extension under this pilot.

Ottawa expects more claims as trade pressures persist

In its regulatory impact analysis, Ottawa estimates that the new pilot will lead to about 181,600 additional established regular EI claims over the year beginning October 11, compared with a scenario in which the previous measures expired. That would bring claims to approximately 1.6 million rather than an estimated 1.43 million without the changes. These figures are forecasts based on the government’s economic assumptions, not claims already approved.

Within that forecast, the new separation rule accounts for an estimated 69,200 newly established claims. About 105,900 claims are projected to benefit from that change overall, including people whose claims would have qualified anyway but who could receive greater entitlement once previously excluded employment hours are recognized. The projections for the individual measures describe overlapping populations, so the number of people affected by each cannot simply be added together.

Tariff-related uncertainty in Canadian industries including automobiles, steel, aluminum and softwood lumber provides the background to the policy. Ottawa introduced the preceding pilot in March 2025 and subsequently continued several of its provisions. The latest regulations maintain that support while testing whether the treatment of earlier resignations and dismissals discourages workers from taking jobs elsewhere during an unsettled labour market.

Federal cost-benefit estimates put the additional EI benefits associated with the measures at roughly C$2.4 billion in present-value terms across four fiscal years. Actual spending will depend on how many workers lose jobs and qualify, and the government’s analysis explicitly recognizes uncertainty around future tariffs and employment conditions.

People who have lost their jobs are encouraged to apply for EI promptly so Service Canada can assess their particular circumstances. Receiving regular benefits still requires claimants to remain available for work, pursue employment and submit reports every two weeks. For workers affected by an earlier job separation, the decisive test under the new temporary rule is the reason their most recent employment ended and whether their new benefit period begins by October 9, 2027.