Governing Legislation and Resources for Employment Insurance (8:II)

This information applies to British Columbia, Canada. Last reviewed for legal accuracy by the Law Students' Legal Advice Program on August 1, 2023.

A. Employment Insurance Act, SC 1996, c 23 and Employment Insurance Regulations (SOR/96-322)

Ensure that you are working with the most recent version of the Act. The Act can be found online, as well as the regulations.

B. Carswell’s Annotated Employment Insurance Statutes

T. Stephen Lavender, The 2023 Annotated Employment Insurance Act, (Carswell, 2023).

Updated every year, Carswell’s Annotated Employment Insurance Statutes is an excellent tool for detailed legal research. It contains the entire EI Act and Regulations, accompanied by thorough annotations following each provision. These annotations provide detailed insights into the historical context of the section, as well as the interpretations and applications of the law through various legal decisions.

C. EI Jurisprudence Online

The EI homepage at https://www.canada.ca/en/services/benefits/ei.html provides Employment Insurance and leave information for workers, families, fishers, and sickness, as well as information on how to apply and how to submit a report. This website is a good starting place when researching EI information.

When preparing an appeal, it is helpful to read decisions on cases that are similar to yours. The Social Security Tribunal (“SST”) has an online library of past decisions. These decisions can be searched via a search engine located at https://decisions.sst-tss.gc.ca/sst-tss/ei-ae/en/nav_date.do.

CanLII also has a database of SST decisions located at http://www.canlii.org/en/ca/sst/.

Note that the SST does not have to follow previous SST decisions, but these could influence their decision. A prior decision may be at most persuasive, especially where the facts are similar. The tribunal must, however, follow rulings of theFederal Court, Court of Appeal, and theSupreme Court of Canada.

The Jurisprudence Library is a search tool that provided access to a database of significant and relevant decisions. Now replaced by the SST library of decisions listed above, the Jurisprudence Library housed decisions by the Umpires, the Federal Court of Appeal, and the Supreme Court of Canada. Last updated in 2022, these decisions can be searched via a search engine located at https://jurisprudence.service.canada.ca/search/index.html.

Note: The Umpires were the highest level of appeal in the EI system before being replaced by the appeal division of the SST. Canadian Umpire Benefit (CUB) decisions are decisions made by the Umpire.

A useful resource can be found in the "Employment Insurance Appeal Decisions Favourable to Workers" decisions database. The database makes available a collection of Employment Insurance jurisprudence where decisions were favourable to workers. One should be aware, however, that this section has not been updated to reflect some recent rulings favourable to workers. At the time of writing, this section was last updated in September 2012. The database can be found at: https://jurisprudence.service.canada.ca/eng/board/favourable_jurisprudence/favourable_decisions_toc.shtml.

D. Tax Court Decisions

There is a separate site for Tax Court decisions (on insurability issues, etc.). The search page is located at https://decision.tcc-cci.gc.ca/tcc-cci/35/en/nav_su_date.do.

E. Digest of Benefit Entitlement Principles

This two-volume policy manual is published by the Commission and is amended periodically. It contains a summary of general law and policy for each subject matter, with references to the relevant sections of the EI Act and Regulations, and refers to many decisions of the Umpires and Federal Court. However, it is written by the Commission, and many chapters do not accurately describe the cases. It must, therefore, be used with caution, and not as a sole reference. However, the online version is the most reliable source, as few printed versions are fully up to date. The manual can be found online.

F. Employment and Social Development Canada

Employment and Social Development Canada (“ESDC”) maintains an extensive website with many tools, which is located at https://www.canada.ca/en/employment-social-development.html.

For general information regarding EI claims, contact:

Vancouver Service Canada Centre

1263 West Broadway

Vancouver, BC V6H 1G7

Telephone: 1 (800) 206-7218