Independent workers who are outside the standard employee-employer relationship don't have access to our social safety net. They don't have access to employment insurance. They don't have access to parental leave or sick leave or any of the benefits housed within the employer-employee relationship. In other words, if you are working on contract, if you are freelance, if you are an entrepreneur, if you're a micro-entrepreneur, then you have no protections under Canada's labour laws, really, and the provincial labour laws and standards specifically around work. You are not officially an employee.
So for those who don't have access to a sick day, we have to ask this question: how do we respond, from a social policy perspective, to the changing nature of work? It necessitates our looking at the millions of Canadian workers today—and the many more tomorrow—who fall outside the social safety net that is predicated on a full-time job or a job that is housed within the employer-employee relationship.