Canadian Labour Unions are Calling On the Government to Protect Workers From Trump’s Tariff War. Here’s Where Parties Stand on EI.

Amid Donald Trump’s tariff war and rising unemployment, labour unions are calling for improvements to Canada’s employment insurance program.

The impacts of Trump’s. trade war on Canada are already being felt across the country’s economy, as the unemployment rate climbed to 6.7% in March, with job losses in retail, agriculture, manufacturing and construction.

On April 2, Stellantis, an auto manufacturer that produces Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep brands among others, announced a two-week shutdown of a plant in Windsor, ON, resulting in almost 4,500 layoffs.

Those layoffs could be just the beginning. According to analysis from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, workers in industries involved in exports to the U.S. account for nearly 2.4 million jobs, or 12% of Canada’s workforce.

Nathaniel Denaro, a researcher with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives’ Trade and Investment Research Project, told PressProgress the existing employment insurance (EI) program likely won’t be sufficient to support the large numbers of workers whose jobs are impacted by Trump’s tariffs, especially during an existing affordability crisis.

“The way the system works might not go far enough to ensure workers don’t fall through the gaps, especially given the scope of how many workers can be affected, with hundreds of thousands of jobs on the line, potentially,” Denaro said.

The amount that workers on Employment Insurance receive depends on how much money they made at their job. Currently, EI offers workers who have been laid off 55% of their weekly wages up to a maximum of $695/week.

In response, Unifor and the Canadian Labour Congress are calling for EI benefit rates to be raised above 55% of a worker’s earnings, a weekly benefit floor of $500 and lowering the eligibility requirement to 360 hours.

Denaro said these proposals, like raising benefit rates and ensuring minimum amounts of take-home pay every week, are a good start when it comes to making sure workers have enough money to live on in the event of a job loss.

He said that because benefits are currently capped at $695, “workers could very well be taking home a lot less than that.”

Here’s what the Liberals, NDP and Conservatives have said about employment insurance and supporting laid-off workers on the campaign trail:

Liberal Party of Canada

Before the writ dropped, the Trudeau government made temporary changes to the EI system as part of an announcement of a $6.5 billion aid package to respond to the tariffs.

Most of the relief package was aimed at supporting businesses impacted by tariffs, with $5 billion earmarked for Export Development Canada, $1 billion for Farm Credit Canada and $500 million for the Business Development Bank of Canada.

The March 7 EI changes involve making job-sharing more accessible by extending the length of job-sharing agreements to 76 weeks and opening the program to workers in seasonal and cyclical positions. Job-sharing allows employers and workers to agree to a reduction in hours while receiving some EI benefits so that workers can avoid being laid off entirely.

Denaro explained that the work sharing program is an adequate short-term solution, but stressed that the program “doesn’t do much” for workers if tariffs become permanent and factories begin to close, as with Stellantis recently in Windsor.

The Liberal government also announced both the one-week waiting period and the requirement workers use up their vacation and severance pay before receiving EI will be waived for the next six months. They also lowered the eligibility hours to 630 and extended the EI coverage period for four weeks.

Former Minister of Labour Steven MacKinnon told CTV’s Mike Le Couteur that there are additional changes that can be made to EI during an election, but any major changes will have to wait until the election is over and parliament is back in session.

“We have other arrows in our quiver that can be enacted without going back to parliament,” MacKinnon said. “But needless to say, at some point parliament will have to have their say.”

Mark Carney has indicated that under a Liberal government, money from retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods would go to impacted workers.

“It’s fundamentally important … to take the proceeds from our counter-tariffs and ensure that they go directly to those workers who are most affected by the American tariffs,” said Carney.

On March 26, Carney announced a $2 billion “strategic response fund”to “protect manufacturing jobs” and help workers access training.

Beyond changes that were made before the election, Denaro said the Liberal’s promises regarding EI and direct support for workers have been light on details.

“I don’t know how that actually breaks down, and how much of this will actually translate to direct support for workers who are affected and have lost their jobs,” said Denaro.

New Democratic Party of Canada

On April 2, Jagmeet Singh’s NDP announced plans to improve employment insurance, including increasing the benefit rate above 55% of a worker’s earnings, set a minimum weekly benefit of $450 and reduce the qualifying hours to 360.

The party also pledged to extend benefits to contractors and self-employed workers.

Denaro told PressProgress that while these commitments are a good start, they likely don’t go far enough to support workers through an extended trade war.

“Is that enough for workers to get by and provide for their families, or have enough to eat every week that they’re laid off?” asked Denaro. “I’m skeptical as to that, especially when we look at the affordability crisis and how expensive it is to live in this country, [even] before the trade war.”

Denaro noted two of the party’s other promises, expanding the work-sharing program and waiving the one-week waiting period, were introduced by the Liberal party in early March.

Conservative Party of Canada

As part of their response to Trump’s tariffs, Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives introduced the Keep Canadians Working Fund, a $3 billion temporary loan program for businesses to keep workers employed.

Denaro questioned whether the program would be enough to keep workers connected to their jobs, especially in the automotive and manufacturing industries that are directly targeted by tariffs.

“I don’t know if these loans will be enough to keep these sectors open either, especially when (companies are) getting pressure from the Trump administration to relocate to the United States,” Denaro said.

Poilievre has also proposed directing money from tariffs to fund tax cuts with the Conservative platform proposing cutting income tax by 15%.

“Almost every penny of the tariffs collected should go to tax cuts, with a small sum set aside for targeted relief to workers hardest hit by the trade war,” Poilievre said.

“The best thing that the government could do is offer some direct support for affected workers and not play around and hedge bets on tax cuts translating to jobs that stay in this country and workers remaining employed,” explained Denaro.

Rather than looking to employment supports from the pandemic as a roadmap for supporting workers during the trade war, Poilievre claimed that similar programs would actually hurt working people.

“We must not allow politicians to dishonestly use this crisis to once again launch a debt-fuelled, money-printing spending spree that will drive up inflation and further destroy the working class and hit the poorest people hardest,” Poilievre told reporters.

Denaro said that for a lot of workers, the Canadian Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) provided the direct support they needed in order to pay their bills and put food on the table during the pandemic’s financial crisis.

“When we’re being critical and accusing these types of programs of just being government printing [money] and leading to inflation, we should ask serious questions about how much money tax cuts cost the government and who stands to benefit the most,” said Denaro.

Denaro pointed to revenue from retaliatory tariffs as a way to finance an expanded EI program. He warned that supports for businesses provide little assurance that those businesses will continue to employ workers.

“At the end of the day, there’s nothing really to guarantee that these businesses stay open, stay in the country, or keep the wealth that they generate off these profits in the country as well.”