CBC News has learned the Conservative government plans to introduce a bill next week to make significant changes to employment insurance.

The proposed legislation will have two parts. The first will extend benefits to laid-off workers who have worked for years, according to government sources.

A page arranges the desks of members of Parliament on Thursday as the House of Commons is prepared for the return of MPs. (Adrian Wyld/Canadian Press)Although the exact criteria have not been approved by cabinet, the focus is on workers who have paid EI premiums for many years, but have drawn few benefits.

The second part is to be introduced later in the month, and will fulfil a Conservative campaign promise from 2008 to extend maternity and parental benefits to the self-employed.

In the Conservative platform document for the 2008 election campaign, the cost of extending those EI benefits to the self-employed was estimated at $147 million.

Women are heavily represented among the self-employed and are a constituency the Conservatives covet, but one that has proved difficult for the party to attract.

Sources told the CBC the measures are being introduced to woo the NDP in advance of a possible confidence vote. NDP Leader Jack Layton has signalled his party is prepared to work with the Conservatives if Prime Minister Stephen Harper is prepared to compromise.

The New Democrats have pushed hard for major employment insurance reforms, including lowering the threshold to qualify for EI to 360 hours in a year.

NDP MP Carole Hughes put forward a private member's bill that would have improved benefits for workers aged 45 and older who have 10 years on the job.

Examining proposals

A senior NDP official told CBC News the party would look closely at the Conservative proposals.

"There needs to be substance behind the EI improvements for NDP support," the official said. "The unemployed need real help and they need it now. NDP bills and motions on EI point the way to what needs to be done."

Canadian Press reported earlier Friday that the government is planning to bring forward a financial ways-and-means motion on Friday, Sept. 18. The motion is considered a confidence issue, and its defeat could trigger an election.

However, a spokesman for Government House Leader Jay Hill said a final timetable on when the motion may be introduced has not been set.

Decisions on timing could hinge on other events going on next week. The prime minister is due to be in Washington on Wednesday and in New York City on Thursday. Many Conservatives are also planning to be in Montreal on Thursday for an event to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the election of Brian Mulroney's Progressive Conservative majority.

No coalition

Also on Friday, Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff promised that his party would never enter into a governing coalition and said he could make Parliament work without such a deal.

"In January, we did not support a coalition, and we do not support a coalition today or tomorrow," Ignatieff told reporters in Ottawa.

Ignatieff said he wouldn't need to form a parliamentary pact because, unlike Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper, he doesn't treat political adversaries as enemies.

"He has already lost the confidence of Parliament once by doing so. He risked doing so again. We know how to make Parliament work. I am favourable to compromise. I am favourable to reaching out. I am favourable to consultation."

Ignatieff said the Liberals would form a "compassionate, moderate government of the centre."

PMO quotes Ignatieff

The Prime Minister's Office on Friday pointed to comments that Ignatieff made last December, when he said he was "prepared to form a coalition government and to lead that government."

Ignatieff said Friday he has a "certain credibility" on the coalition issue, suggesting he could have become prime minister back in January if he had agreed to a pact with the other opposition parties, but he turned it down.

"I don't think I need to give further proof of my feeling that that's not what Canadians want."