1st Session, 36th Parliament,
46 Elizabeth II, 1997

The House of Commons of Canada

BILL C-299

An Act to amend the Employment Insurance Act, 1997 (premiums and Employment Insurance Account)

1996, c. 23

      Her Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate and House of Commons of Canada, enacts as follows:

1. Section 66 of the Employment Insurance Act is replaced by the following:

Annual premium rate setting

66. The Commission shall set the premium rate for each year at a rate that the Commission considers will, to the extent possible,

    (a) ensure that there will be enough revenue over a business cycle to pay the amounts authorized to be charged to the Employment Insurance Account; and

    (b) maintain relatively stable rate levels throughout the business cycle.

Obligation to hold hearing

66.1 (1) No later than six months after the coming into force of this section and every two years thereafter, the Commission shall hold at least one hearing for representations by persons interested in the subject of the past or future setting of the premium rate by the Commission under section 66.

Notice by Commission

(2) Sixty days before the beginning of the hearing, the Commission shall cause a notice to be published in the Canada Gazette and no fewer than five major English-language newspapers and five major French-language newspapers a notice, and the notice shall contain the following:

    (a) a statement that the Commission will hold at least one hearing for representations by persons interested in the past or future setting of the premium rate by the Commission under section 66;

    (b) the date, time and place of the hearing;

    (c) an invitation to all interested persons to make representations before the Commission; and

    (d) a statement indicating that no representation by an interested person shall be heard by the Commission at the hearing unless notice in writing is received by the Commission not later than fifty-three days after the date of the publication of the notice under this subsection, stating the name and address of the person who is seeking to make the representation.

No represen-
tation without notice to Commission

(3) No representation by an interested person shall be heard by the Commission at a hearing held under this section unless notice in writing is received by the Commission not later than fifty-three days after the date of the publication of the notice under subsection (2), stating the name and address of the person who is seeking to make the representation.

2. The Act is amended by adding the following after section 80.1:

Credits to the Employment Insurance Account

80.2 Notwithstanding any other provision in this Act or any other Act of Parliament, on September 1, in each and every year, there shall be credited to the Employment Insurance Account and charged to the Consolidated Revenue Fund an amount equal to the amount calculated in accordance with the following formula:

A - B

where

A represents all amounts paid into the Consolidated Revenue Fund or obtained by it pursuant to this Act in the preceding financial year; and

B represents the total amounts used by the Consolidated Revenue Fund to meet its obligations under this Act that have been credited to the Employment Insurance Account in the preceding financial year.

3. The Act is amended by adding the following after section 153.1:

PART VIII.2

REGULATIONS

Regulations

153.2 (1) Notwithstanding any other provision of this Act, within three months following the coming into force of this section, the Governor shall make regulations

    (a) for the operation of sections 1 and 2 of the Act to amend the Employment Insurance Act, 1997; and

    (b) amending sections of this Act to make them more consistent with sections 1 and 2 of the Act to amend the Employment Insurance Act, 1997.

Coming into force of regulations

(2) Subject to subsection (3), regulations made under subsection (1) shall come into force three months after this section comes into force.

Approval of the House of Commons

(3) The coming into force of any regulations that amend or repeal regulations made by the Governor in Council under subsection (1) is subject to approval by resolution of the House of Commons, and the regulations shall come into force on the day after the House of Commons approves the regulations by resolution.

Coming into force

4. Sections 1 and 2 shall come into force three months after this Act is assented to.