Dalhousie Legal Aid Service

Schulich School of Law

Employment Insurance

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Employment Insurance (EI) allows Canadians who have lost their job through no fault of their own to receive temporary financial assistance while they look for work or upgrade their skills. Learn more by selecting the units below.  

Qualifying for EI

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This introductory unit discusses the laws that govern EI and how to qualify for financial assistance.

Applying for EI & Appeals

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This unit covers the application process and the appeal procedure all the way to the Social Security Tribunal Appeal Division.

Disqualification

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This unit will teach you about some of the most common reasons that people are disqualified for EI including: voluntary leaving; just cause; misconduct and availability.

There are numerous reasons a claimant can be disqualified from receiving regular EI benefits.

Three of the more common reasons for EI claimants being disqualified are:

  1. Quitting a job (under the EI Act this is referred to as ‘Voluntary Leaving’);
  2. Misconduct; and
  3. Availability.

Helpful Tips

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This unit contains some pointers on EI applications, reconsideration, appeals and more.

Additional Resources

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Here we have provided a list of places you can go for more information on EI.

Case Law

 Applicable case law on EI comes from the Umpire (eventually the SST Appeal Division) and the Federal Court of Appeal.  The Supreme Court of Canada can also make decisions on EI.

There are excellent online case law resources for EI:

EI Appeal Decisions Favourable to Workers:

http://www.ei.gc.ca/eng/board/favourable_jurisprudence/favourable_decisions_toc.shtml

Jurisprudence Library: http://www.ei.gc.ca/eng/library/searchxt.shtml

Digest of Benefit Entitlement Principles:

http://www.servicecanada.gc.ca/eng/ei/digest/table_of_contents.shtml

Index of Jurisprudence: http://srv130.services.gc.ca/indexjurisprudence/eng/about.aspx

Quick Reference Tool: http://www.ei.gc.ca/eng/board/quick_reference_page.shtml

Government

 The federal government maintains a website on EI here: http://www.servicecanada.gc.ca/eng/sc/ei/index.shtml

Community Legal Education Ontario

 CLEO has a publication about EI that can be found here: http://www.cleo.on.ca/en/publications/emplns

Nova Scotia Legal Aid

 NSLA offices provide summary advice to clients regarding EI.  Their contact information can be found here: http://www.nslegalaid.ca/contact.php