Additional weeks of Employment Insurance regular benefits for seasonal workers in targeted regions

Seasonal workers are an important part of Canada’s growing economy. To better support them, the Government of Canada provides additional weeks of Employment Insurance (EI) regular benefits to eligible seasonal workers who live in 1 of 13 targeted EI economic regions:

• Newfoundland / Labrador (excludes St. John’s region)
• Eastern Nova Scotia
• Western Nova Scotia
• Prince Edward Island (excludes Charlottetown region)
• Charlottetown
• Madawaska-Charlotte
• Restigouche-Albert
• Gaspésie-Îles-de-la-Madeleine
• Lower Saint Lawrence and North Shore
• Central Quebec
• Chicoutimi-Jonquière
• North Western Quebec
• Yukon (excludes Whitehorse region)

If you’re a seasonal worker from 1 of the EI economic regions listed above, you may be eligible to receive additional weeks of regular benefits.

If your EI claim starts between:	You can receive up to:
September 26, 2021 and September 9, 2023	5 additional weeks of regular benefits
September 10, 2023 and September 7, 2024	9 additional weeks of regular benefits
September 8, 2024 and October 26, 2024	5 additional weeks of regular benefits

The additional weeks of regular benefits will be added automatically to your claim if 1 of the 2 following situations applies when your claim starts:

1. You meet the seasonal worker criteria which are:
   • you received regular or fishing benefits from at least 3 EI claims^{Footnote 1} in the past 5 years, and
   • at least 2 of those EI claims started around the same time of year as your current claim
2. You don’t meet the seasonal worker criteria, but you did meet the criteria on an EI claim that started between August 5, 2018 and September 25, 2021

Apply for EI benefits