CBC Digital Archives

Employment Insurance: UI gets richer in 1971

Employment insurance is a legacy of the Great Depression, and remains a pillar of Canada's social safety net. The system was created to provide an income while unemployed workers find new jobs, but expanded to include seasonal workers, new parents and those caring for ill relatives. Canada's EI system was once among the most generous plans in the world, but tightened rules in 1996 brought surpluses in the billions of dollars. CBC Digital Archives documents how employment insurance has evolved since 1941.

Shorter qualifying periods, bigger benefits and retraining programs add up to a total overhaul for Canada's unemployment insurance program in 1971. But by bringing in workers (such as teachers) who are unlikely to ever make a claim, the new UI is tantamount to another tax, critics charge. Others say a government-mandated guaranteed annual income would do more for Canadians. In this excerpt from CBC Radio's Cross Country Checkup, labour minister Bryce Mackasey and Jacques De Roches of the Unemployment Insurance Commission hear what Canadians like about the plan - and what they don't. 
• The 1971 changes ushered in maternity benefits for the first time, paying out for 15 weeks to women whose jobs were interrupted by a pregnancy. According to the Globe and Mail, a woman could draw benefits for nine weeks before her baby was expected and six weeks after its birth.

• New legislation around the same time compelled federally regulated workplaces to grant women 12 weeks of maternity leave.

• An editorial of Sept. 6, 1971 in the Globe and Mail said the new UI scheme was "excessively generous" to pregnant wives and part-time seasonal workers, among others. It called for maternity benefits to be cancelled except in cases where the woman could prove she was the primary breadwinner. "At a time when unemployment is high and likely to continue so, all available money should be directed to alleviating real need and not frittered away as bonuses to those who have neither earned nor need them," it concluded.

• Social activists have long pushed for a guaranteed annual income in Canada as a means of reducing poverty. Such a plan would replace unemployment insurance, old age security, child benefits and social assistance (welfare) by paying all Canadians a minimum liveable income. As recently as 2008 a senate committee addressed the possibility of a guaranteed annual income, but made no conclusions.

Medium: Radio
Program: Cross Country Checkup
Broadcast Date: June 21, 1970
Guest(s): Jacques Des Roches, Louis Guberman, Bryce Mackasey
Host: Betty Shapiro
Duration: 39:00

Last updated: May 15, 2012

Page consulted on March 25, 2013

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