Reforming Employment Insurance: Transcending the Politics of the Status Quo

Incremental changes to the Unemployment Insurance program during the 1990s have resulted in a substantial retrenchment of the program, along with significant changes in the balancing of its objectives. The EI reforms of 1994-96 in introducing structural change through a strategy of purposeful incrementalism illustrate both the relative autonomy of the federal government and Human Resources Development Canada from major societal interests and the limits on that autonomy imposed by regional interests and the dynamics of federal-provincial relations. Internal competition within the federal bureaucracy, Cabinet, and caucus played a more significant role in sharing the EI reform agenda than external interests.