Summary of the Evaluation of the Employment Insurance Fishing Benefits, 2026
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About the benefits
Employment Insurance (EI) provides fishing benefits to qualifying, self-employed fishers who are actively seeking work. Unlike EI regular benefits, eligibility for EI fishing benefits is based on insurable earnings from fishing, not hours of insurable employment.
In 2021, about 20,500 fishers filed 30,000 EI fishing claims and received benefits. These benefits represent approximately 1.9% of all EI claims established annually.
Key findings
From 2001 to 2021, the number of self-employed fishers steadily declined from 38,000 to 25,000. Of these fishers, an average of 80% were eligible for EI fishing benefits, suggesting that eligibility requirements are generally achievable for this group.
In 2018, approximately 44.8% of fishers claimed both summer and winter benefits during the same year and did not receive EI benefits for 8 weeks on average within April to July of that year.
During the study period, the share of EI fishing claimants receiving the maximum weekly benefit rate ranged between 60% in 2009, an average of 73% between 2017 to 2019, and 75% in 2021. These levels are higher than those observed for EI regular benefits claimants, for whom the same share ranged from about 47% to nearly 50% between 2017 and 2019.
Most focus groups of self-employed fishers pointed to the delivery of benefits as an area of satisfaction except for a few groups who identified challenges obtaining accurate information or the required assistance from Service Canada during the application process. In terms of creating and filing Record of Employment, few designated employers (fish buyers) reported having issues and felt that the process worked very well.
All focus groups of employers indicated that EI fishing benefits were essential for keeping people employed in the fishing industry and that without these benefits, they did not believe that many would continue to work in the industry because of the nature of the work.
Recommendations
- It is recommended to review the qualifying conditions for fishing benefits, including the process for issuing ROE, with consideration given to fishing industry conditions.
- It is recommended that Service Canada improve officers' training on EI fishing benefit regulations and improve expertise to provide efficient and accurate service to self-employed fishers during the application process.