Since the inception and design of Canada's Employment Insurance (EI) program, the Canadian economy and labour market have undergone dramatic changes. It is clear that EI has not kept pace with those changes, and experts and advocates agree that the program is no longer effective or equitable. Making EI Work is the result of a panel of distinguished scholars gathered by the Mowat Centre Employment Insurance Task Force to analyze the strengths, weaknesses, and future directions of EI. The authors identify the strengths and weaknesses of the system, and consider how it could be improved to better and more fairly support those in need. They make suggestions for facilitating a more efficient Canadian labour market, and meeting the human capital requirements of a dynamic economy for the present and the foreseeable future. The chapters that comprise Making EI Work informed the task force's final recommendations, and form an engaging dialogue that makes the case for, and defines the parameters of, a reformed support system for Canada's unemployed. Contributors include Ken Battle (Caledon Institute of Social Policy), Robin Boadway (Queen's University), Allison Bramwell (University of Toronto), Sujit Choudhry (New York University School of Law), Kathleen M. Day (University of Ottawa), Ross Finnie (University of Ottawa), Jean-Denis Garon (Queen's University), David Gray (University of Ottawa), Morley Gunderson (University of Toronto), Ian Irvine (Concordia University), Stephen Jones (McMaster University), Thomas R. Klassen (York University), Michael Mendelson (Caledon Institute of Social Policy), Alain Noël (Université de Montréal), Michael Pal (University of Toronto Faculty of Law), W. Craig Riddell (University of British Columbia), William Scarth (McMaster University), Luc Turgeon (University of Ottawa), Leah F. Vosko (York University), Stanley L. Winer (Carleton University), Donna E. Wood (University of Victoria), and Yan Zhang (Statistics Canada).

Since the inception and design of Canada's Employment Insurance (EI) program, the Canadian economy and labour market have undergone dramatic changes. It is clear that EI has not kept pace with those changes, and experts and advocates agree that the program is no longer effective or equitable. Making EI Work is the result of a panel of distinguished scholars gathered by the Mowat Centre Employment Insurance Task Force to analyze the strengths, weaknesses, and future directions of EI. The authors identify the strengths and weaknesses of the system, and consider how it could be improved to better and more fairly support those in need. They make suggestions for facilitating a more efficient Canadian labour market, and meeting the human capital requirements of a dynamic economy for the present and the foreseeable future. The chapters that comprise Making EI Work informed the task force's final recommendations, and form an engaging dialogue that makes the case for, and defines the parameters of, a reformed support system for Canada's unemployed. Contributors include Ken Battle (Caledon Institute of Social Policy), Robin Boadway (Queen's University), Allison Bramwell (University of Toronto), Sujit Choudhry (New York University School of Law), Kathleen M. Day (University of Ottawa), Ross Finnie (University of Ottawa), Jean-Denis Garon (Queen's University), David Gray (University of Ottawa), Morley Gunderson (University of Toronto), Ian Irvine (Concordia University), Stephen Jones (McMaster University), Thomas R. Klassen (York University), Michael Mendelson (Caledon Institute of Social Policy), Alain Noël (Université de Montréal), Michael Pal (University of Toronto Faculty of Law), W. Craig Riddell (University of British Columbia), William Scarth (McMaster University), Luc Turgeon (University of Ottawa), Leah F. Vosko (York University), Stanley L. Winer (Carleton University), Donna E. Wood (University of Victoria), and Yan Zhang (Statistics Canada).

Placed within the context of a discussion of the principles underlying the present-day EI program, this research leads the authors to identify policy options that are worth exploring further in order to make EI more responsive to the realities of today's labour market, while at the same time addressing potential disincentives and inequities in the current system. [...] This study shows that the relationship between EI and the decision to migrate is complex and depends on individuals' degree of attachment to the labour market, since only those who work few weeks per year were found to be more likely to move following the tightening of the EI program in the mid-1990s. [...] This overhaul took the form of the Employment Insurance (EI) program introduced in 1996 to bring the program up-to-pace with changes in the economy.6 Along with a requirement to reduce program costs, program designers endeavoured "to ensure that the system was responsive to the realities of today's labour market and to remove disincentives and inequities in the system" (HRDC, 1998b, p. i). [...] The 1996 reform represented the culmination of a series of modifications in the mid- 1990s that reduced the generosity of the program. [...] Another important research element was the series of in-depth evaluation studies sponsored by Human Resources and Skills Development Canada (HRSDC) in the late 1990s, which provided important lessons in the ongoing refinement of the program.7 The subject matter of these studies was wide-ranging, from the impact of EI's switch to an hours-based system to the implementation of income supplements for.