In September, 2025, the federal government announced a new temporary Employment Insurance (EI) that gave long-tenured workers an additional 20 weeks of benefits for claims filed between June 15, 2025, and April 11, 2026.
This measure was introduced in response to the U.S.-instigated trade war. and will cost the government $853 million from 2025 to 2028, the Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO) estimated.
The temporary measure boosts the maximum period for EI benefits to 65 weeks. Those who received fewer than 36 weeks of regular or fishing benefits in the three years before a claim, and paid at least 30% of annual maximum EI premiums for seven of the last 10 years, count as a long-tenured worker.
The cost of additional benefits will be $126 million in the 2025–26 fiscal year. It will peak at $896 million in 2026–27, before dropping to $8 in 2027–28.
This adds up to $1.03 billion in additional benefit costs. EI is taxable however, and the PBO expects the government to recover $176 million.
As the EI contribution rate is set to balance the operating account over a seven-year period, the PBO estimated that the EI premium increase will be less than 1 cent per $100 of insurable earnings.
The PBO made the estimates using historical claims data and applied a 2.5% annual growth rate to average weekly benefits paid. The estimate excluded any interaction with other measures, additional administrative costs and behavioural effects. Those uncertainties could affect both the net costs and their distribution over time.