Plain Language in Progress Congress Houston February 2000

The Plain Language Project Of the Canadian Employment Insurance Act

Presentation by Guy Grenon
Reported by Guy Grenon and René Racette
Human Resources Development Canada
Employment Insurance Program
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

Background

In early 1997, the federal Department of Human Resources Development, in full partnership with the Department of Justice, began the Plain Language Project of the Canadian Employment Insurance (EI) Act. Its purpose is to simplify the act by writing it in plain language.

The EI Act is a federal statute providing insurance against unemployment for all paid workers in Canada (some 14 million) and is one of several income-support programs administered by Human Resources Development.

The EI Act is considered to be one of the most difficult federal laws to understand despite its application to some 3 million unemployed insured workers per year.

The intent of the project is not just to state the law in simpler terms but to make it easier to access by such clients as claimants, employers, advocates representing claimants, and the general public. Specifically, we want to ensure that all clients can:

Navigate the law in order to respond to specific issues and questions.
Recognize clearly when they have found the pertinent point of law.
Understand easily the text of the appropriate section.
Locate, retrieve and extract text easily for secondary use.

This is a pioneer project in Canada. Once completed, the EI plain language prototype is expected to serve as the plain language model for future statutes of the Department of Justice.

1997 to 1999

From 1997 to 1999 teamwork consisted of:

Research into plain language experiences within Canada and in other countries such as Australia, New Zealand, and England.
Development of an organizational structure.
Experimental drafting of selected subjects of the EI Act into plain language using the best modern-day techniques.

In early 1999, a presentation was made of this initial design work to an Advisory Group consisting of private-sector participants from various labour unions, employer associations and advocacy groups. The Advisory Group unanimously endorsed the project and recommended full steam ahead, pushing the project from design mode into production.

This work was followed by another positive meeting of the Advisory Group in the Fall of 1999.

2000 to 2002

Readability tests in focus sessions with clients are scheduled for early Spring in concert with the University of Ottawa.

Internet accessibility for the project is currently being developed.

Work will continue in segments with further presentations to the Advisory Group. We hope to complete a polished version by March 31, 2002, for presentation to Canada's Parliamentary process—the expectation is that the polished version will eventually be adopted as the replacement to the existing Employment Insurance Act.