Employment Insurance Regulations - Insurable Employment

---

---

7.  The following employments are excluded from insurable employment:

(a) [Repealed, SOR/97-310, s. 1]

(b) employment of a person who is a member of a religious order, if the person has taken a vow of poverty and the person's remuneration is paid directly, or by that person, to the order;

(c) employment in respect of which premiums are payable under

• (i) the unemployment insurance law of any state of the United States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico or the Virgin Islands, by reason of the Agreement between Canada and the United States Respecting Unemployment Insurance, signed on March 6 and 12, 1942, or
  
  
• (ii) the Railroad Unemployment Insurance Act of the United States;

(d) employment in Canada of a person who resides in a country other than Canada, if premiums are payable in respect of services performed by the person in Canada under the unemployment insurance laws of that other country;

(e) employment of a person for the purpose of a rescue operation, if the person is not regularly employed by the employer who employs them for that purpose; and

(f) employment under the Self-employment employment benefit or the Job Creation Partnerships employment benefit established by the Commission under section 59 of the Act or under a similar benefit that is provided by a provincial government or other organization and is the subject of an agreement under section 63 of the Act. SOR/97-310, s. 1.

8. (1)  Subject to subsections (2) to (4), the following employments are excluded from insurable employment: (a) employment of a person by an employer, other than as an entertainer, in connection with a circus, fair, parade, carnival, exposition, exhibition or other similar activity if the person

(i) is not regularly employed by that employer, and

(ii) is employed by that employer in that employment for less than seven days in a year; and

(b) [Repealed, SOR/98-588, s. 1]

(c) employment of a person by Her Majesty in right of Canada, the government of a province, a municipality or a school board in connection with a referendum or election to public office if the person

(i) is not regularly employed by that employer, and

(ii) is employed by that employer in that employment for less than 35 hours in any year after 1998.

(2) Where an employment that has been excluded from insurable employment under paragraph (1)(a) or (c) becomes a regular employment, the employment is insurable employment beginning on the day or at the hour, as the case may be, that the employment became a regular employment. 

 (3) Where a person has been employed by the same employer in one or more employments that have been excluded from insurable employment under paragraph (1)(a) and the total period of those employments exceeds six days in the same year, the employments, taken together, are insurable employment beginning on the day when the total period of employment began. 

 (4) Where a person has been employed by the same employer in one or more employments that have been excluded from insurable employment under paragraph (1)(c) and the total period of those employments exceeds 34 hours in the same year, the employments, taken together, are insurable employment beginning at the hour when the total period of employment began. SOR/98-588, s. 1. 

9. (1) The definitions in this subsection apply in this section.

"agriculture" means the operations of farming that are carried out for the benefit of any person who is a farmer and, without limiting the generality of the foregoing, includes (a) where carried out on a farm

• (i) clearing land for cultivation,
  
  
• (ii) cultivation of the soil,
  
  
• (iii) conservation of the soil, including the construction, maintenance and operation of tile drainage systems, ditches, canals, reservoirs or waterways exclusively for the purposes of farming,
  
  
• (iv) harvesting, storing or grading any natural product of farming,
  
  
• (v) preparing land for the growing and harvesting of wild berries,
  
  
• (vi) raising bees and producing honey,
  
  
• (vii) breeding or raising animals or birds, or producing eggs,
  
  
• (viii) dairy farming and the processing of milk, butter or cheese that is produced on that farm, and
  
  
• (ix) producing maple sap, maple syrup or maple sugar; and

(b) where carried out on or off a farm (i) offering for sale or selling any of the products of the operations referred to in subparagraphs (a)(i) to (ix), if the offering for sale or selling is incidental to those operations, and

(ii) exhibiting, advertising, assembling, freezing, storing, grading, preparing, processing, packing and transporting the products described in subparagraph (i), if those operations are incidental to the offering for sale or selling described in that subparagraph. (agriculture) "agricultural enterprise" means the business of agriculture carried on for the benefit of any person who is a farmer. (entreprise agricole)

"horticulture" means the following operations and includes all the services incidental to the carrying out of those operations, if the services are performed at the place where the operations are carried on:

(a) the propagating, producing, raising or harvesting of

(i) vegetables, flowers, shrubs or ornamental grasses, and

(ii) seeds, seedlings, grafts or cuttings of vegetables, flowers, shrubs or ornamental grasses; and

(b) landscape gardening where it is incidental to the carrying out of

(i) any of the operations described in paragraph (a), or

(ii) agriculture. (horticulture)

 (2) The employment of a person by an employer in agriculture, an agricultural enterprise or horticulture that would otherwise be insurable is excluded from insurable employment if the person is employed by the employer in that employment for

(a) less than seven days in a year; or

(b) seven days or more in a year and is not remunerated in cash by the employer for any part of that employment.
SOR/97-31, s. 2.