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Case summaries are prepared by the Office of the Registrar of the Supreme Court of Canada (Law Branch). Please note that summaries are not provided to the Judges of the Court. They are placed on the Court file and website for information purposes only.

Constitutional law - Division of powers - Unemployment insurance - Taxation - Financial statements of unemployment insurance program incorporated into federal government’s consolidated financial statements in 1986 - Federal government ceasing to contribute to funding of Program in 1990 - Amendment of 1996 limiting access to unemployment benefits and creating active measures, including employment benefits - Amendment of 1996 altering mechanism under which regular adjustments to premium rates tied to surpluses - Surpluses totalling $50 billion accumulated since then - Accumulated surpluses allegedly allocated to various purposes, including debt reduction - Whether ss. 66 to 66.3 and 72 of Employment Insurance Act, S.C. 1996, c. 23, exceed, in whole, in part or through their combined effect, unemployment insurance power provided for in s. 91(2A) of Constitution Act, 1867 - If answer to first question affirmative, whether ss. 66 to 66.3 and 72 of Employment Insurance Act exceed, in whole, in part or through their combined effect, taxation power provided for in s. 91(3) of Constitution Act, 1867 - If answer to second question negative, whether ss. 66 to 66.3 and 72 of Employment Insurance Act satisfy requirements of s. 53 of Constitution Act, 1867 - Whether ss. 24, 25, 56 to 65.2, 73, 75, 77, 109(c) and 135(2) of Employment Insurance Act exceed, in whole, in part or through their combined effect, unemployment insurance power provided for in s. 91(2A) of Constitution Act, 1867 - If so, whether ss. 24, 25, 56 to 65.2, 73, 75, 77, 109(c) and 135(2) of Employment Insurance Act are validly based on federal spending power.

In 1996, the Employment Insurance Act expanded the range of measures in support of job retention and access to employment while making it more difficult to qualify for unemployment benefits. The Act also modified the self-regulating mechanism for setting the rates of premiums to be paid by employees and employers, under which regular adjustments to inflows of money from premiums were tied to the state of the program’s reserves. These modifications were in addition to changes previously made to the program: the incorporation of the Commission’s budget into the Consolidated Revenue Fund in 1986 and the cessation of the federal government’s contributions to funding of the program in 1990. The legal challenge in this case is based on the argument that the Employment Insurance Account has become a general source of federal funding that has grown at the expense of the main purpose of the federal jurisdiction over unemployment insurance.