Employment Insurance (EI)

Decision Information

Decision Content



Reasons and decision

[1] Previously, a member of the General Division dismissed the Applicant’s appeal. In due course, the Applicant filed an application requesting leave to appeal to the Appeal Division.

[2] Subsection 58(1) of the Department of Employment and Social Development Act (DESDA) states that the only grounds of appeal are that:

  1. (a) the General Division failed to observe a principle of natural justice or otherwise acted beyond or refused to exercise its jurisdiction;
  2. (b) the General Division erred in law in making its decision, whether or not the error appears on the face of the record; or
  3. (c) the General Division based its decision on an erroneous finding of fact that it made in a perverse or capricious manner or without regard for the material before it.

[3] The DESDA also states that leave to appeal is to be refused if the appeal has “no reasonable chance of success”.

[4] In her initial application, the Applicant provided details regarding her financial situation and alleged that Service Canada had given her bad advice regarding her benefit entitlement.

[5] Because these initial submissions did not set out a ground of appeal with a reasonable chance of success, I instructed Tribunal staff to contact the Applicant by letter to seek further details. Specifically, the Tribunal letter asked that the Applicant provide full and detailed grounds of appeal as required by the DESDA, and provided examples of what constitutes grounds of appeal. The Tribunal letter also noted that if this was not done, the application could be refused without further notice.

[6] The Applicant responded with additional details regarding the alleged bad advice. She also noted that Service Canada is intended to provide a single point of access to government programs, and that it defeats that goal if poor advice is given to claimants. The Applicant asks that I grant her leave to appeal on the basis of “natural JUSTICE [sic]”.

[7] The Applicant is dissatisfied with the General Division member’s decision. But regardless of the advice that Service Canada gave the Applicant, I am bound by the Employment Insurance Act and related regulations. The Applicant appears to be asking that I ignore the law and provide her with a favourable decision.

[8] This I cannot do.

[9] The role of the Appeal Division is to determine if a reviewable error set out in ss. 58(1) of the DESDA has been made by the General Division and, if so, to provide a remedy for that error. In the absence of such a reviewable error, the law does not permit the Appeal Division to intervene. It is not our role to re-hear the case de novo.

[10] It is not sufficient for an applicant to ask the Appeal Division for a different outcome than that already rendered. In order to have a reasonable chance of success, an applicant must explain in some detail how, in their view, at least one reviewable error set out in the DESDA has been made. Having failed to do so, even after having been prompted to do so by the Tribunal, I find that the Applicant’s application for leave to appeal does not have a reasonable chance of success and must be refused.

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