The federal government has reappointed Nancy Healey (pictured) as the Employment Insurance (EI) Commissioner for Employers, extending her tenure representing Canadian business interests on the Canada Employment Insurance Commission (CEIC) for another 18 months, effective July 26, 2026.
Patty Hajdu, minister of jobs and families and minister responsible for the Federal Economic Development Agency for Northern Ontario, announced the reappointment.
The CEIC is mandated under the Employment Insurance Act to administer the EI program, monitor and assess it annually, and oversee financial transparency and premium rate setting.
Healey will continue to represent the views and interests of Canadian employers on matters related to the EI program.
The reappointment keeps the Commission's tripartite structure intact, with balanced representation from employers, workers and government, and maintains continuity in employer representation at a time when the program faces mounting financial pressure.
Healey will work alongside her counterpart, the Commissioner for Workers, building and maintaining relationships with private-sector organizations and individuals affected by the EI program. Those relationships allow the commissioners to bring the concerns of the sectors they represent into decisions on legislation, policy development and program delivery tied to EI.
She was first appointed Commissioner for Employers in July 2021 and reappointed for a three-year term effective July 26, 2023. Healey brings more than 20 years of leadership experience advocating for business interests, having served as chief executive officer of the St. John's board of trade from 2008 to 2020 and as executive director of an industry association focused on Canada's hospitality and tourism sector.
"I am confident Ms. Nancy Healey will continue to represent the views and interests of Canadian employers in her role as Commissioner for Employers on the Canada Employment Insurance Commission," Hajdu said. "Her extensive experience and leadership will support the Commission's work to ensure the Employment Insurance program reflects the needs of employers and remains responsive to a changing labour market."
The Commission Healey sits on does more than set the headline EI premium rate each year. It also administers the Premium Reduction Program (PRP), which intersects directly with the group benefits business written by Canadian life and health insurers.
Under the PRP, employers that provide a qualifying short-term disability or wage-loss replacement plan, one that pays benefits within eight days of illness or injury, runs for at least 15 weeks, and matches or exceeds EI sickness benefit levels, can pay a reduced employer EI multiple instead of the standard 1.4 times the employee rate.
For 2026, the Commission set PRP reductions across four plan categories ranging from $0.21 to $0.42 per $100 of insurable earnings, with the best available reduction, for enhanced cumulative paid sick leave or weekly indemnity plans, working out to a maximum of $261.68 in employer savings per employee.
Across the program, the PRP is expected to return roughly $1.457 billion in premium savings in 2026 to registered employers and their employees.
Healey's reappointment lands as the CEIC navigates a period of heightened financial scrutiny. The Commission set the 2026 EI premium rate at $1.63 per $100 of insurable earnings for employees and $2.28 for employers, a one-cent decrease from 2025.
However, the maximum insurable earnings threshold rose to $68,900 from $65,700, pushing the maximum annual employer contribution up by $63.83 per employee to $1,572.30, even as the headline rate declined.
The rate-setting also comes against a backdrop of financial strain: the EI Operating Account's cumulative deficit was projected at $17.2 billion as of the end of 2025, driven partly by higher unemployment linked to US tariffs on Canadian exports and by temporary measures introduced in 2025 to widen EI access for tariff-affected workers.
As the Commission balances a multibillion-dollar EI Operating Account deficit against rising maximum insurable earnings, the annual PRP rate-setting process, an area where employer representation carries real influence, will keep shaping how attractive group short-term disability coverage looks relative to relying on EI sickness benefits alone.
An experienced advocate for employer cost relief is well positioned to keep that comparison favorable to private wage-loss plans, which works squarely in insurers' commercial interest as they compete for group benefits business in a market where EI remains the default safety net for employers without supplemental coverage.
