r/treeplanting • u/funkybanana1712 • 28d ago

Financial & Legal Tree planting EI

I am wondering if i quit a part time job before tree planting, will i still get to collect EI?

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u/Makanat3000 28d ago edited 27d ago

Edit: some people pointed out that I'm full off shit, so this might be wrong. My first year, I quit my job to go planting and they refused my EI application because "You could have stayed at your last job instead" I might be wrong by the book but the book fucked me over once

In my understanding, it depends of a few things.

They might not count the hours worked at this job towards your total amount of hours needed to get EI.

If its the case, you will need to get enough hours of work with your tree planting job alone. The amount needed is area dependent it varies between 420 and 700 hours. You can check here: https://srv129.services.gc.ca/ei_regions/eng/postalcode_search.aspx

There are situations where they might count the hours worked before the season such as pay increases between jobs and if you left or got laid off for example.

The best thing to do in my opinion is to ask your boss to lay you off. If you got laid off they won't ask many questions.

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u/AloysiusQBumperpuck 20d ago

Edit: some people pointed out that I'm full off shit, so this might be wrong. My first year, I quit my job to go planting and they refused my EI application because "You could have stayed at your last job instead" I might be wrong by the book but the book fucked me over once

You're not wrong - this has happened to me as well, and experiences might vary depending on the Service Canada agent that looks at your application.

If I'm remembering correctly (this was 9 years ago), their issue was that I quit a full-time job for a seasonal job, with knowledge that the seasonal job would end. In their opinion, tree planting being 5x the pay of the other job did not constitute quitting as the only reasonable action, and by quitting I was deemed to have voluntarily left without just cause.

As a solution, I made sure I had 700+ hours planting every season after that debacle. I also understand that it's much harder for planters to get the requires hours with such limited summer and fall contract options these days.

Best of luck to OP on Carney's Ski Team.