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Les Archives de Radio-Canada

Home · Economy & Business · Employment · On the Dole: Employment Insurance in Canada

Topic spans: 1945 - 1999

On the Dole: Employment Insurance in Canada

Employment insurance is a legacy of the Great Depression, and remains a pillar of Canada's social safety net. The system was created to provide an income while unemployed workers find new jobs, but expanded to include seasonal workers, new parents and those caring for ill relatives. Canada's EI system was once among the most generous plans in the world, but tightened rules in 1996 brought surpluses in the billions of dollars. CBC Digital Archives documents how employment insurance has evolved since 1941.

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Since 1965 I have supported and never drew on this EI program.Is there a BONUS back for this???NO??? WHY NOT??

Submitted by: Wayne Morris


What is social security?

Broadcast Date: Jan. 25, 1945

With the end of the Second World War in sight in early 1945, those serving in the Armed Forces are looking to a postwar future. Will there be jobs for everyone, or will we go back to the Hungry '30s? There's some comfort in knowing that things are different now that unemployment insurance, introduced in 1940, is part of Canada's social security system. In this clip from CBC Radio's Servicemen's Forum, a panel of military men and women discusses the ways Canada provides for its people.

What is social security?

• In the age before unemployment insurance, jobless Canadians lacking other sources of income depended on their local municipalities for relief. For example, in 1936, a family of five (two parents, three children) living in Trois-Rivières earned a maximum of $27.33 per month for food, fuel and shelter. In Kingston, Ont., the maximum relief payment was $38.19, and in Calgary, the amount was $60.60 per month.

• The federal government under prime minister R.B. Bennett attempted to introduce unemployment insurance in 1935. But, months later, the act was struck down as unconstitutional because the provinces had jurisdiction over the unemployed. After the 1937 Royal Commission on Dominion-Provincial Relations, the Constitution was amended in 1940 to transfer responsibility for the unemployed to the federal government.

• The government, by then headed by Prime Minister Mackenzie King, promptly introduced the Unemployment Insurance Act. It came into effect on July 1, 1941, providing benefits for jobless workers to a maximum of $14.40 per week for married men. The plan covered an estimated 42 per cent of workers at the time. Employers and employees each paid for 40 per cent of the plan, and the government contributed the remaining 20 per cent plus administration costs.

• Canada's unemployment rate averaged 19.1 per cent in 1935; by 1940, the year after the Second World War began, it had dropped to 9.3 per cent.

What is social security?

Medium: Radio

Program: Servicemen's Forum

Broadcast Date: Jan. 25, 1945

Guest(s): Sidney Dillick, Bud Minton


Moderator: Donald MacDonald
Panellist: Phyllis Fox, Mary White, John Devor, E.M. Dolin

Duration: 27:01

Last updated:
Feb. 19, 2009


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