Pennies to eliminate the "black hole" - A national coalition calls on Prime Minister Carney to thoroughly review the Employment Insurance program

OTTAWA, ON, March 25, 2026 /CNW/ - As rising oil prices and the trade war shake the Canadian economy, the Interprovincial Employment Insurance Alliance, composed of unions and community groups advocating for the rights of the unemployed across the Eastern Canada, calls for a major reform of Employment Insurance and for urgent measures to support the many workers who are left out of the system, particularly those in seasonal industries.

A delegation of about 20 people from several provinces has come to Ottawa today to deliver a clear message to the Minister of Finance: urgent action is needed for our regions! Carrying jars filled with black pennies, Alliance members emphasize that fixing the employment insurance "black hole" would cost only… a few pennies.

A system that abandons our regions

Québec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, or Newfoundland: across Eastern Canada, seasonal industry workers find themselves without income for several weeks every year due to administrative parameters ill-suited to regional realities. Yet these people hold jobs that are essential to the regional economy: fishing, fish processing, forestry, construction, tourism, outfitters, firefighting. The problem is well known: between the end of employment insurance benefits and a return to work, there is a gap. This gap is known to seasonal workers as the "black hole."

The coalition wants a major overhaul of employment insurance to expand access to the program and better counter the vagaries of seasonal work. In the short term, it calls for the extension and improvement of the pilot project, which ends in October 2026 and provides five additional weeks of benefits to workers in the seasonal industry. The organizations are urging that this measure not only be maintained but also made permanent and extended by 15 weeks.

The Alliance delivers the necessary funds to Minister Champagne

To highlight the government's inaction on this long-standing issue, the Interprovincial Alliance delivered black pennies collected from employers, workers, and residents of the affected regions.

"By presenting our black pennies to Minister Champagne, we want to remind him that the 'black hole' problem is not a matter of funds nor an inevitability, but a lack of political will. The 15 additional weeks that workers in the seasonal industry would receive would cost only one cent per $100 of income. So here are the pennies: now we're waiting for political action!" said Fernand Thibodeau, spokesperson for the Interprovincial Employment Insurance Alliance.

Workers left behind

On the ground, the consequences are very real. Workers in the seasonal industry and members of the Alliance have come forward to share their stories so that lawmakers can understand the regional landscape:

"The current employment insurance system has failed us. We're expected to work impossible hours, and our benefits are being cut through unfair calculations. 'Seafarers deserve better,' says Mandy Symonds of the Nova Scotian Seasonal Workers Association.

"We provide Québec with wood, fish, and a tourist destination. We love our work. All we ask is to get through the winter with dignity," emphasizes Audrey Boulianne, a seasonal worker in Tadoussac

"Seasonal workers deserve an employment insurance system that takes into account their actual work season and the stability of employment in their region, not constantly changing unemployment rates. "It is essential to modernize employment insurance and include crisis support measures to protect rural and coastal communities," says Johan Joensen, a representative of the Fish, Food and Allied Workers Union (FFAW-Unifor) in Newfoundland and Labrador.

A Necessary Reform for All Citizens

"Fewer and fewer workers are covered by unemployment insurance, even as unemployment rises. The government must address this problem. The CSN welcomes the government's decision to extend temporary measures to address the tariff crisis, including the provision of 20 additional weeks for long-term workers, but condemns the fact that too few have access to them. For example, young people, who are often the first to be laid off, are not eligible for this measure," says David Bergeron-Cyr, vice-président de la CSN.

"The current system continues to exclude those who need it most. It is time to have the political courage to carry out a thorough reform," adds Olivier Carrière, secretaire general de la FTQ.

For the Alliance, the issue goes far beyond employment insurance: it concerns the future of entire regions. Without a solution, the organizations warn, coastal and rural communities will continue to depopulate, weakening entire sectors of the Canadian economy. Today, with their black pennies, workers are sending a straightforward message to the government: solutions exist, they are affordable--all that's missing is the political will.

SOURCE Interprovincial Employment Insurance Alliance

Media contact: Line Sirois, Director of Action-Chômage Côte-Nord, 581-323-1100 or 418-989-4339 (cell); Thierry Larivière, Communications Advisor for the CSN, 514-966-4380; David Francke-Robitaille, director of communications, for the FTQ, 514-961-4489