The Conservatives’ long-promised EI legislation for the self-employed has finally been introduced.

The Fairness for the Self-Employed Act, announced yesterday in Montreal (where a limited self-employed EI program has been in place since 2005), aims to extend EI sickness, compassionate care, maternity, parental and adoption benefits to self-employed people across Canada.

According to a CBC News report, signups will be taken for the plan beginning on January 1, 2010, and benefits will start being paid out one year after that.

The government claims that these new benefits will “mirror those currently available to salaried employees under the EI program.”

So tell us: should self-employed lawyers start paying into EI next year? Our latest poll is up, to the right of this post.

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