Ottawa is ending a program that gave laid off workers extra employment insurance benefits to help them ride out the effects of the economic downturn.

Starting Saturday, the federal government will no longer offer an extra five weeks of EI benefits and will end a program that offered up to 20 addition weeks of EI for longer-serving employees.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced the measures last year as part of Ottawa's economic action plan in response to major job cuts caused by economic turmoil.

The EI extensions were among $47 billion in spending over two years to prop up the Canadian economy, including spending on infrastructure and enhanced EI benefits.

But Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty said switching off the benefits is a bad idea.

"It's too early for us to rollback benefits for employment insurance given the state of the recovery. I think that's a mistake," said McGuinty.

"Given this tremendous and unusual uncertainty, I think we're in a period of prolonged, very slow growth, and that calls for us to maintain that kind of measure to ensure that those people who are having difficulty finding a job have the necessary supports."

The infrastructure taps will be turned off March 31, 2011.

Provincial governments and labour leaders are calling on Ottawa to keep the EI program running, saying this year's economy recovery has been uneven and unemployment figures remain high.

Ken Lewenza, the Canadian Auto Workers' union president, and Earle McCurdy, president of the Fish, Food and Allied Workers union, sent a letter to the Prime Minister in July asking for him to keep the extended EI benefits in place.

"This is vital to a sustainable recovery, as well as to unemployed workers and their families," their letter said. "(The) $57 billion in EI premiums borrowed by successive governments was supposed to be there for us in the event of a rainy day. It is now raining."

Another plan to on raise EI premiums businesses was also assailed by McGuinty, who said that businesses can't yet handle the extra costs.

"I think (it) runs counter to what we need to do in order to ensure that people regain more confidence every day about a growing economy," he said.

"I was disappointed the Bank of Canada decided to increase their interest rate, and I think we've got to be very careful about doing anything that acts as any kind of spoke in the wheels of the economy that is recovering at a very modest pace."

Canadians will start feeling the additional hit in EI premiums when the two-year freeze on premiums announced in the 2009 budget comes to an end on Jan. 1.

With files from The Canadian Press