## Facts

- Parliament enacted a contributory employment insurance scheme providing income-replacement benefits to insured workers who experience an interruption of earnings.
- Sections 22 and 23 of the Employment Insurance Act authorized maternity benefits for pregnant or recently postpartum claimants and parental benefits for parents caring for a newborn or newly adopted child.
- Quebec referred questions to its Court of Appeal challenging the constitutional validity of ss. 22 and 23 under the division of powers.
- The Quebec Court of Appeal held the provisions ultra vires Parliament as intruding into provincial jurisdiction over property and civil rights and matters of a local or private nature.
- The Attorney General of Canada appealed to the Supreme Court of Canada; the reference raised no Charter questions.

## Issues

1. Whether ss. 22 and 23, in pith and substance, fall within Parliament’s exclusive jurisdiction over “unemployment insurance” or instead within provincial jurisdiction over property and civil rights and local or private matters.
2. Whether providing maternity and parental income-replacement benefits through the employment insurance scheme is a valid extension of the federal unemployment insurance power.

## Decision

- The Supreme Court allowed the appeal and held ss. 22 and 23 intra vires Parliament.
- The Court characterized the provisions as components of a federal unemployment insurance scheme that compensates insured workers for temporary interruptions of earnings linked to maternity and parental responsibilities.
- The Court rejected the view that the provisions constituted an autonomous family or social policy regime reserved to the provinces.
- The Court held the provisions did not, in purpose or effect, amount to a colourable attempt to regulate provincial matters such as employment standards, labour conditions, or family law.

## Legal Principles

- Division-of-powers validity turns on pith and substance: the law’s dominant purpose and effects, assessed functionally rather than by label.
- “Unemployment insurance” is not fixed to the conditions that existed when federal jurisdiction was adopted; it can extend to new forms of temporary work interruption that produce an insurable loss of earnings.
- Contributory, insurance-based income replacement tied to insured status and an interruption of earnings supports classification under the unemployment insurance head of power, even if the subject matter relates to childbirth or caregiving.
- Provinces remain competent to regulate related domains such as job-protected leave, labour standards, and workplace conditions; federal competence here is confined to the insurance benefit scheme.

## Conclusion

The Court upheld federal maternity and parental benefits as valid exercises of the unemployment insurance power because they provide contributory, insurance-based income replacement for insured workers experiencing temporary earnings interruptions, without displacing provincial authority over employment standards or other local matters.


Reference re Employment Insurance Act (Can.), ss. 22 & 23, [2005] 2 S.C.R. 669 (SCC 2005)