People and families
Employment Insurance benefits
In fiscal year 2024–25, the federal government spent $24.9 billion on employment insurance benefits, 4.7% of federal spending reported by theme, up from $23.1B in 2023–24.
Regular, sickness, maternity, parental, caregiving and fishing benefits paid from the Employment Insurance Operating Account, which is financed by employer and employee premiums. Benefit amounts come from the Public Accounts of Canada. Government payments into the account are listed but not added, because the benefits they fund are already counted.
Headline figures
Fiscal year 2024–25
$24.9B
4.7% of the $527.8B of federal spending reported by theme, including Employment Insurance benefits.
Cost per tax filer uses 29,965,100 tax filers (2023, the latest count published); per person uses a population of 41,162,593 (2024). An allocation of cost, not a tax bill.
Basis: Employment Insurance benefits from the Public Accounts consolidated statement (accrual). The two sources measure spending slightly differently; both are audited Public Accounts figures.
Show these figures as a table
| Fiscal year | Spending |
|---|---|
| 2018–19 | $18.9B |
| 2019–20 | $21.8B |
| 2020–21 | $58.4B |
| 2021–22 | $38.9B |
| 2022–23 | $21.8B |
| 2023–24 | $23.1B |
| 2024–25 | $24.9B |
Benefits paid to people
Benefits paid to people in 2024–25, from the Public Accounts consolidated statement. They are not appropriated, so they do not appear in departmental program spending.
Related programs (not added)
Government payments into the Employment Insurance Operating Account. They fund the benefits above, so they are not added to the total.
Grants and contributions
Payments to provinces, organizations and individuals in 2024–25, by transfer payment program, from the Public Accounts. These are a different cut of the same money as the programs above, so the two lists are not added together. Select one to see its largest recipients.
Sources and basis
- Consolidated Statement of Revenues and Expenses as per the Public Accounts of Canada, retrieved 2026-10-30. Open Government Licence - Canada. Employment Insurance benefits: these lines reconcile to the matching lines in the budget fiscal tables.
- GC InfoBase - Open Datasets, retrieved 2026-11-03. Open Government Licence - Canada. Program spending is reconciled to Public Accounts expenditures by vote for every organization and year. Employment Insurance benefits and the Canada Child Benefit are not appropriated, so they come from the Public Accounts statement instead; other items that are not appropriated are not in any theme.
- Detailed information on Transfer Payments, as per the Public Accounts of Canada, retrieved 2026-11-03. Open Government Licence - Canada.
- Themes group programs by purpose, not by department. Each program is assigned to one theme by a published, reviewable rule set.