The Government of Canada has approved legislation – the Fairness for the Self-Employed Act – to provide Employment Insurance (EI) maternity, parental/adoption, sickness and compassionate care benefits to self-employed Canadians on a voluntary basis. This legislation will allow the self-employed to opt into the EI program in January 2010, while benefits will start being paid [...]

Construction contractors are often confused when it comes to dealing with people who provide labour and sub-contract work. Because of the nature of the business, the confusion lies in whether the service provider is employed or self-employed. A contractor may have individuals providing services that consider themselves to be self-employed or who don’t want to [...]

The Government of Canada has introduced some proposed legislation under the Fairness for the Self-Employed Act which could provide the opportunity for self-employed individuals to access many of the same employment insurance benefits as employees. The legislation, recently announced by the Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development, The Honourable Diane Finley, forms part of [...]