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Bill C-111

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PART II

EMPLOYMENT BENEFITS AND NATIONAL EMPLOYMENT SERVICE

Purpose

56. The purpose of this Part is to help maintain a sustainable employment insurance system through the establishment of employment benefits for insured participants and the maintenance of a national employment service.

Guidelines

57. (1) Employment benefits and support measures under this Part shall be established in accordance with the following guidelines:

    (a) harmonization with provincial employment initiatives to ensure that there is no unnecessary overlap or duplication;

    (b) reduction of dependency on unemployment benefits by helping individuals obtain or keep employment;

    (c) co-operation and partnership with other governments, employers, community-based organizations and other interested organizations;

    (d) flexibility to allow significant decisions about implementation to be made at a local level;

    (e) commitment by persons receiving assistance under the benefits and measures to

      (i) achieving the goals of the assistance,

      (ii) taking primary responsibility for identifying their employment needs and locating services necessary to allow them to meet those needs, and

      (iii) if appropriate, sharing the cost of the assistance; and

    (f) implementation of the benefits and measures within a framework for evaluating their success in assisting persons to obtain or keep employment.

Working in concert with provincial governments

(2) To give effect to the purpose and guidelines of this Part, the Commission shall work in concert with the government of each province in which employment benefits and support measures are to be implemented in designing the benefits and measures, determining how they are to be implemented and establishing the framework for evaluating their success.

Agreements with provinces

(3) The Commission shall invite the government of each province to enter into agreements for the purposes of subsection (2) or any other agreements authorized by this Part.

Definition of ``insured participant''

58. In this Part, ``insured participant'' means an insured person who requests assistance under employment benefits and, when requesting the assistance, is an unemployed person

    (a) for whom a benefit period is established or whose benefit period has ended within the previous 36 months; or

    (b) for whom a benefit period has been established in the previous 60 months and who

      (i) was paid special benefits under section 22 or 23 during the benefit period,

      (ii) subsequently withdrew from active participation in the labour force to care for one or more of their new-born children or one or more children placed with them for the purpose of adoption, and

      (iii) is seeking to re-enter the labour force.

Employment benefits for insured participants

59. The Commission may establish employment benefits to enable insured participants to obtain employment, including benefits to

    (a) encourage employers to hire them;

    (b) encourage them to accept employment by offering incentives such as temporary earnings supplements;

    (c) help them start businesses or become self-employed;

    (d) provide them with employment opportunities through which they can gain work experience to improve their long-term employment prospects; and

    (e) help them obtain skills for employment, ranging from basic to advanced skills.

National employment service

60. (1) The Commission shall maintain a national employment service to provide information on employment opportunities across Canada to help workers find suitable employment and help employers find suitable workers.

Duties of the Commission

(2) The Commission shall

    (a) collect information concerning employment for workers and workers seeking employment and, to the extent the Commission considers necessary, make the information available with a view to assisting workers to obtain employment for which they are suited and assisting employers to obtain workers most suitable to their needs; and

    (b) ensure that in referring a worker seeking employment there will be no discrimination on a prohibited ground of discrimination within the meaning of the Canadian Human Rights Act or because of political affiliation, but nothing in this paragraph prohibits the national employment service from giving effect to

      (i) any limitation, specification or preference based on a bona fide occupational requirement, or

      (ii) any special program, plan or arrangement mentioned in section 16 of the Canadian Human Rights Act.

Regulations

(3) The Commission may, with the approval of the Governor in Council, make regulations for the purposes of subsections (1) and (2).

Support measures

(4) In support of the national employment service, the Commission may establish support measures to support

    (a) organizations that provide employment assistance services to unemployed persons;

    (b) employers, employee or employer associations and communities in developing and implementing strategies for dealing with labour force adjustments and meeting human resource requirements; and

    (c) research and innovative projects to identify better ways of helping persons prepare for, return to or keep employment and be productive participants in the labour force.

Limitation

(5) Support measures established under paragraph (4)(b) shall not

    (a) provide assistance for employed persons unless they are facing a loss of their employment; or

    (b) provide direct federal government assistance for the provision of labour market training without the agreement of the government of the province in which the assistance is provided.

Financial assistance

61. (1) For the purpose of implementing employment benefits and support measures, the Commission may, in accordance with terms and conditions approved by the Treasury Board, provide financial assistance in the form of

    (a) grants or contributions;

    (b) loans or loan guarantees;

    (c) payments for any service provided at the request of the Commission; and

    (d) vouchers to be exchanged for services and payments for the provision of the services.

Provincial agreement

(2) The Commission may not provide any financial assistance in a province in support of employment benefits mentioned in paragraph 59(e) without the agreement of the government of the province.

Transitional payments for educational institutions

(3) Payments under paragraph (1)(c) include the following transitional payments, which may not be made under this section more than three years after it comes into force:

    (a) payments to a public or private educational institution for providing a course or program of instruction or training at the request of the Commission under employment benefits authorized by paragraph 59(e); and

    (b) payments to a province in respect of the course or program if it is provided by a public educational institution and there is an agreement between the government of the province and the Commission to remunerate the province for all or part of the cost of providing the course or program.

Agreements for administering employment benefits and support measures

62. The Commission may, with the approval of the Minister, enter into an agreement or arrangement for the administration of employment benefits or support measures on its behalf by a department, board or agency of the Government of Canada, another government or government agency in Canada or any other public or private organization.

Agreements for paying costs of similar benefits and measures

63. The Commission may, with the approval of the Minister, enter into an agreement with a government or government agency in Canada or any other public or private organization to provide for the payment of contributions for all or a portion of any costs it incurs in relation to benefits or measures that are similar to employment benefits or support measures under this Part and are consistent with the purpose and guidelines of this Part.

No appeal

64. A decision of the Commission made in relation to employment benefits or support measures is not subject to appeal under section 114 or 115.

Liability for repayments

65. (1) A person is liable to repay the following amounts paid under section 61:

    (a) a loan to the person;

    (b) an amount paid on a guarantee of a loan made to the person; and

    (c) an amount paid to the person to which the person is not entitled.

Debts due the Crown

(2) The repayable amounts are debts due to Her Majesty and are recoverable in the Federal Court or any other court of competent jurisdiction or in any other manner provided by this Act.

Recovery

(3) If an amount becomes payable to the person under section 61, the amount of their indebtedness to Her Majesty may be recovered out of the amount payable.

PART III

PREMIUMS AND OTHER FINANCIAL MATTERS

Premiums

Annual premium rate setting

66. The Commission shall, with the approval of the Governor in Council on the recommendation of the Minister and the Minister of Finance, set the premium rate for each year at a rate that the Commission considers will, to the extent possible,

    (a) ensure that there will be enough revenue over a business cycle to pay the amounts authorized to be charged to the Employment Insurance Account; and

    (b) maintain relatively stable rate levels throughout the business cycle.

Employee's premium

67. Subject to section 70, a person employed in insurable employment shall pay, by deduction as provided in subsection 82(1), a premium equal to their insurable earnings multiplied by the premium rate set by the Commission.

Employer's premium

68. Subject to sections 69 and 70, an employer shall pay a premium equal to 1.4 times the employees' premiums that the employer is required to deduct under subsection 82(1).

Premium reduction - wage-loss plans

69. (1) The Commission shall, with the approval of the Governor in Council, make regulations to provide a system for reducing the employer's premium where

    (a) the payment of any allowances, money or other benefits because of illness, injury, quarantine, pregnancy or child care under a plan that covers insured persons employed by the employer, other than one established under provincial law, would have the effect of reducing the special benefits payable to the insured persons; and

    (b) the insured persons will benefit from the reduction of the employer's premium in an amount at least equal to 5/12 of the reduction.

Premium reduction - provincial wage-loss plans

(2) The Commission shall, with the approval of the Governor in Council, make regulations to provide a system for reducing the employer's and employee's premiums when the payment of any allowances, money or other benefits because of illness, injury, quarantine, pregnancy or child care under a provincial law to insured persons would have the effect of reducing or eliminating the special benefits payable to those insured persons.

Included provisions

(3) The regulations may include provisions

    (a) prescribing the manner and time for making an application for a premium reduction;

    (b) prescribing the standards that must be met by a plan to qualify for a premium reduction and the time during which the plan must be in effect;

    (c) prescribing the method for determining the amount of reduction for plans that meet the prescribed standards and the use to be made of actuarial calculations and estimates;

    (d) prescribing the manner in which insured persons are to benefit from the premium reduction;

    (e) providing for the making of decisions relating to premium reduction and appeals in cases of dispute;

    (f) prescribing how the insured earnings of insured persons will be reported by employers to the Department of National Revenue; and

    (g) generally, providing for any other matters necessary for carrying out the purposes and provisions of subsections (1) and (2).

Late applications

(4) If an application for an employer's premium reduction is made within 36 months after the time prescribed for making it, the Commission may, subject to prescribed conditions, regard the application as having been made at the prescribed time if the applicant shows that there was good cause for the delay throughout the period beginning at the prescribed time and ending on the day when the application was made.

Reconsiderati on of application

(5) The Commission may reconsider any decision relating to an employer's premium reduction within 36 months after the date of the decision and any new decision that it makes shall apply in place of the reconsidered decision.

Overlapping pay periods

70. If insurable earnings are paid to a person after the end of the year in which their insurable employment occurred, the insurable employment is, for the purposes of determining insurable earnings and premiums payable, deemed to have occurred in the year in which the insurable earnings are paid.