Thank you, Chair, and members of the committee.
Good morning.
My name is Andrew Brown. I am the director general for Employment Insurance Policy at the Department of Employment and Social Development. Joining me is Rutha Astravas, director of Policy for EI Special Benefits.
Let me begin by thanking the committee for the opportunity to address this very important issue—parents who have suffered the loss of an infant child and exploring ways to support them.
I sympathize with Canadians who have lost an infant child to sudden or unexpected causes, including in the case of sudden infant death syndrome. I can't imagine the suffering experienced by families and parents in these cases. Yesterday one of your own colleagues spoke of the tremendous grief when infant death struck his own family.
I'll begin by sharing with the committee some information on the EI program and the support that it offers for Canadians.
The EI program provides temporary income support when workers are unemployed due to job loss, which is known as regular benefits, and also in specific situations that may occur over the course of one's working career, known as EI special benefits.
EI special benefits play an important role in helping individuals balance work and life responsibilities. Special benefits include maternity, parental, sickness and caregiving benefits. I'll speak about these benefits and how they're relevant when an infant dies.
I should also mention that the Canada Labour Code provides unpaid leave protection for workers in the federal jurisdiction that are aligned to EI special benefits, and provinces and territories maintain their own employment standards that provide leave to workers in their jurisdictions.
I would also like the committee to know that to qualify for EI special benefits, workers need to have accumulated at least 600 hours of insurable employment during the 52-week period immediately before the start date of their claim, or since their last EI claim.
When families are welcoming new children, maternity and parental benefits are available to eligible parents.
The parental benefit is payable to birth or adoptive parents, including same-sex parents, following the birth or placement of a child for the purpose of adoption. The purpose of the benefit is to support parents in providing care for their new child or children.
Parents can choose to receive parental benefits up to a maximum of 35 weeks paid over 12 months, or up to 61 weeks, paid at a lower rate, over a period of 18 months. In the unfortunate event of a child's death, these benefits end in the week that the child dies, as there is no longer a need to provide care to that child.
EI maternity benefits support a birth mother's physical and emotional recovery for up to 15 weeks surrounding childbirth. As they are linked to the mother's health and not the child, these benefits continue to be payable in the tragic event that the child passes away.
The EI program also provides support for family caregiving. The EI family caregiver benefit provides up to 15 weeks of benefits to provide care to an adult family member with a critical illness or injury and up to 35 weeks of benefits to provide care to a child with a critical illness or injury.
The EI compassionate care benefit provides up to 26 weeks of income support to provide end-of-life care to a family member, specifically a family member with a serious medical condition and a significant risk of death within a 26-week period.
In the case of these caregiving benefits, should the care recipient pass away, the benefits end in the week that the family member dies, based on the same principle used for parental benefits.
Finally, grieving parents may be eligible to receive up to 15 weeks of EI sickness benefits should they be unable to work following the death of their child. The sickness benefit provides income support to claimants who are unable to work due to illness or injury, including incapacity due to pronounced emotional or psychological stress. These supports may provide some measure of assistance for parents in the event of the loss of a child.
In recent years there have been a number of changes to improve EI special benefits. The government expanded the eligible caregiver support network to include immediate and extended family members rather than just parents for the EI family caregiver benefits for children. It's also now easier to access caregiving benefits, as we allow medical doctors and nurse practitioners to sign medical certificates to simplify the application process for families.
Amendments have also been made to the Canada Labour Code to ensure that workers in federally regulated sectors have the job protection they need while receiving the caregiving, parental or maternity benefits.
Mr. Chair, that concludes my opening remarks, and we would be happy to answer any questions you may have.
