The place of gig workers has become a key issue in ongoing deliberation on how the decades-old employment insurance system will be updated. There is general agreement that the social safety net program created eight decades ago needs to be adapted to cover gig workers when they fall on hard times. Questions exist at the practical level, such as how to calculate premiums and benefits, in addition to policy concerns about determining when someone needs aid, given that the nature of gig employment includes ups and downs. "EI has to join the 21st century because to me, an EI that doesn't cover everybody isn't a functional or realistic or fair or useful EI," said Hinds, who uses the pronoun they.