Case information

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Sections 22 and 23 of the Employment Insurance Act (“E.I.A.”) provide for the payment of “special benefits” to insured pregnant women and parents, authorizing the payment of income replacement benefits for periods of 15 weeks in the case of maternity benefits and 35 weeks in the case of parental benefits.

In February 1996, the Quebec government announced its intention to introduce a plan establishing maternity and parental benefits for workers. To facilitate the implementation of the plan, it negotiated with the Government of Canada for an agreement to have the Canada Employment Insurance Commission make regulations under s. 69(2) of the E.I.A. Under s. 69(2), the Commission is required to make regulations to provide a system for reducing the employer’s and employee’s premiums when the payment of allowances to insured persons under a provincial law would have the effect of reducing or eliminating the special benefits payable to them.

On May 25, 2001, the Quebec National Assembly adopted the Act respecting parental insurance, which established “a parental insurance plan, the object of which is to give eligible workers entitlement to maternity benefits and paternity and parental benefits on the birth of a child, and adoption benefits in connection with the adoption of a minor”.

As the negotiations initiated in 1996 with the Government of Canada had not yielded the expected results, the Quebec government made a reference to the Court of Appeal, which declared that ss. 22 and 23 of the E.I.A. encroached upon provincial legislative competence and were ultra vires the Parliament of Canada as regards its legislative competence over unemployment insurance.