Finance committee  The leave provisions, though, vary across the country based on the province or territory, or whether the employees are regulated by the Canada Labour Code. So at this point it remains to be seen how provinces and territories would intend to follow or not follow the federal government's lead in making changes to EI benefits.

Finance committee  There are certainly a number of differences between the EI maternal and parental benefits program and the Quebec parental insurance plan with respect to self-employed workers. It is possible for self-employed workers in the rest of Canada to opt into the EI program to pay premiums and obtain access to maternity and parental benefits.

Finance committee  One of the things I would say was that the consultations were not only from the perspective of the administration of the program for us, but also of thinking about employers who need to be able to deal with the leave and potential top-ups to the EI benefits. If people were changing their selection of the duration of the leave and also the payment rate, whether the lower 33% or the higher 55%, it could result in incorrect payments to claimants, which we would subsequently have to recover, and in challenges for their employers dealing with both the leave and any top-ups they needed to provide to those employees.

Finance committee  They're certainly not able to handle that at present. There will be work under way to implement changes to the systems so they will be able to cope with what is proposed. This proposal here to allow parents flexibility to select the option up until the time that benefits are paid would align with the same approach that's been taken in Quebec with the Quebec parental insurance plan.

Finance committee  I think I would leave it to others to judge the significance of the change. I know we have heard from parents who welcome the ability to take leave and benefits over a longer period of time, so they might be able to reach a period of having access to affordable child care. If you think more broadly about stakeholder reaction to the budget announcement, they've been very positive with respect to caregiving but it has been more mixed with respect to the parental changes.

Finance committee  I would say in response that it would be complex. That would certainly be thinking about it from, perhaps, a service delivery perspective. However, I think there's another really important stakeholder here beyond the parents, and that's the employer. In terms of the consultations that were undertaken before moving forward with this, one of the things that we really heard from stakeholders was some concern by one particular group about a longer duration of parental leave and benefits, but also particularly the importance to them of some degree of certainty about when the employee would be returning.

Finance committee  As you may know, the Employment Insurance Act is a very complex piece of legislation. Now, in terms of the changes that are being proposed in budget 2017, there is specifically the new caregiving benefit, as well as flexibility with respect to the maternity and parental benefit.

Finance committee  Thank you, Chair, for the introduction. I'll get right into my opening remarks. I will address the proposed amendments to the Employment Insurance Act to provide more flexibility for parents and more inclusive benefits for caregivers. Employment insurance is Canada's largest labour market program.

Human Resources committee  Beyond what was just announced yesterday, which was to allow women to be able to start sooner. So I think from the perspective of flexibility, it's usually a question of about when they can start and end and who else can share the benefits. In terms of flexibility, that's sort of the space we're in.

Human Resources committee  I will comment on the 15 weeks of maternity benefits first. In the unfortunate event that a problem occurs— and there is a stillbirth, for example, the mother still has a right to those 15 weeks of benefits. That's different from parental benefits, which are for providing care to the child.

Human Resources committee  I don't have a lot of specifics on that issue, but I think what you are raising is that there is a lot of complexity in the EI program, including when people combine different kinds of benefits, and that this does relate to people who are taking either maternity and parental benefits and may also be seeking to access regular benefits for job loss.

Human Resources committee  It's certainly one of the sorts of things that we are continually looking at in the program: how benefits can be taken in combination.

Human Resources committee  It changes nothing in Quebec, where women already have access to maternity benefits sooner than they do in the rest of the country.

Human Resources committee  Yes, that is correct. It does not change the eligibility criteria or the number of hours worked required to qualify for maternity or parental benefits.

Human Resources committee  Yes.