After years of advocacy from workers’ groups, the federal government created the Employment Insurance Board of Appeal (EI BOA). The Board of Appeal will take over responsibility from the Social Security Tribunal – General Division for hearing and deciding first-level appeals under the Employment Insurance Act. Under the new Board of Appeal, three-member (tri-partite) panels made up of representatives of the government, workers and employers will hear first-level appeals. The Board will be based in 39 regions across Canada and can hold in-person hearings in approximately 100 locations. The Board will also offer virtual hearings.
The Board of Appeal marks a return to the tri-partite model of decision-making used by the EI Boards of Referees until approximately 2013, when it was replaced with the Social Security Tribunal (SST). Advocates hope the new Board of Appeal will improve timely and fair decision-making about EI for workers.
In December 2024, the government published draft regulations about how the Board of Appeal will operate. ISAC and the Ontario Community Legal Clinics EI Working Group were among very few groups across the country that provided submissions on the draft regulations, which you can read here in the comments sections of the draft regulations. Unfortunately, the government did not make any changes when it published the final regulations in March 2025.
ISAC staff attended the EI Commissioner for Workers’ Forum in Ottawa recently and heard more details about the upcoming switch to the Board of Appeal. We learned that the government has not yet set a date for the Board of Appeal to start hearing EI appeals. First they need to appoint enough adjudicators and train them. Cases currently with the SST will be completed before it winds down its operations; the SST will not transfer any cases to the Board of Appeal. New legislation will be introduced to set the start date for the Board of Appeal.
ISAC will continue to provide updates on the Board of Appeal as it moves forward.