EI and Tariffs: 20 Extra Weeks After a Layoff

A layoff in a sector exposed to U.S. tariffs is not handled quite like any other. Ottawa has put in place temporary Employment Insurance measures that change three very concrete things: when the first dollar arrives, how many weeks get paid, and what happens to your severance. Here is what each one is worth, and how long it lasts.

Four temporary measures, and their dates

This is not a separate program. These are adjustments to regular EI benefits, applied automatically when your claim falls inside the right window.

A fifth measure targets employers rather than employees. The Work-Sharing Program, which lets a whole team cut its hours instead of laying part of it off, has special measures running from March 7, 2025 to March 31, 2028.

The waiting period waived: one week paid instead of nothing

Normally, EI does not pay the first week. That is the waiting period: one week with no benefit, which the federal page compares to the deductible on an insurance policy. You are entitled to benefits, but that week is not paid.

The temporary measure cancels it. For any new claim that starts between March 30, 2025 and October 9, 2027, that week is paid.

How much is that worth? At the ceiling, one week of benefits is $729 in 2026. For most people it is less: the benefit is a percentage of your pay, and we come back to that below.

One detail that spares a disappointment: waiving the waiting period does not make the money arrive faster. The first payment still lands about 28 days after you apply, if your file is complete. The measure adds a week to the total paid, not an earlier deposit.

20 extra weeks, but not for everyone

This is the most generous measure, and the most tightly framed. It gives 20 additional weeks of regular benefits, up to a maximum of 65 weeks.

Two entry conditions first: your claim must start between June 15, 2025 and June 12, 2027, and you must have received at least one week of regular benefits.

What a "long-tenured worker" means

The phrase has a precise definition, and it comes down to two conditions that add up:

• having received fewer than 36 weeks of regular or fishing benefits in the 3 years before your claim starts;
• having paid at least 30% of the annual maximum EI premiums for at least 7 of the 10 years before the year of your claim.

The second one sounds technical. It says something simple. Your EI premium is a percentage of your pay, and it is capped: above a certain income, it stops growing. Having paid 30% of that maximum means you earned a meaningful share of the insurable income that year. Repeated 7 years out of 10, the condition describes someone who contributed steadily for a decade — not someone who strings together a few weeks a year. We broke down what that premium looks like on a pay stub in our article on EI premiums in Quebec.

Good news on the paperwork: the weeks are added automatically. There is no second application to fill out, and the benefit period is extended by 20 weeks accordingly.

Severance no longer pushes your benefits back

Normally, money paid when you leave is "allocated". EI treats it as pay covering the weeks that follow the end of your job, and benefits only start once that stretch has run out. Severance equal to eight weeks of salary therefore pushed benefits back by eight weeks.

The temporary measure suspends that allocation. If your claim — or the allocation itself — starts between March 30, 2025 and October 9, 2027, those earnings are not deducted from your benefits. This covers vacation pay, pay in lieu of notice, severance pay, closure bonuses and sick leave credits.

For someone laid off after long years with the same employer, this is often the measure that moves the most money: the severance is cashed, and benefits start anyway.

What all of this is worth after tax

The regular benefit is 55% of your average insurable weekly earnings. "Insurable" means capped: as of January 1, 2026, the maximum yearly insurable earnings amount is $68,900.

The ceiling takes two lines to work out. $68,900 spread over 52 weeks is $1,325 a week. 55% of $1,325 is $729 — exactly the maximum weekly benefit for 2026. Earning more than $68,900 therefore changes nothing about the benefit.

But $729 is a gross amount. EI benefits are taxable income, and federal and provincial tax is deducted from the payments. What lands in your account is lower. What the maximum benefit leaves after tax has an article of its own, because the gap often surprises people in the right direction.

To compare like with like, you also have to look at what the salary left you. A gross of $68,900 in Quebec does not land whole in your account either. Here is what is withheld from it:

So the drop is less brutal than "55%" suggests. You are comparing a gross salary already cut by its withholdings to a benefit on which only income tax is taken. For your own salary, the Quebec calculator gives you the net in a few seconds.

For the 20 extra weeks, the order of magnitude works the same way: 20 weeks at $729 is $14,580 gross. That is a ceiling, not a promise, and it is before tax.

Four useful reflexes if the layoff comes

• Apply right away. The first payment arrives about 28 days after you apply, not after your job ends. Waiting a week pushes everything back a week.
• Check your hours. You need 420 to 700 hours of insurable employment in the qualifying period, which is generally the 52 weeks before your claim. The exact threshold depends on the unemployment rate in your region.
• Do not rule yourself out over an old voluntary departure. For claims starting between October 11, 2026 and October 9, 2027, only the reason for your most recent separation is reviewed. If you lost that last job through no fault of your own, the hours from every job in the period count.
• Do not wait until your severance runs out. As long as the measure applies, it no longer pushes anything back.