Actually, it will be me, Mr. Redekopp.
Minister, I want to raise the issue of the systemic failure of your department to deliver EI benefits to women, under your leadership. The issue affects women who go into premature labour.
Your department puts mothers on the child caregiver benefit while the baby is still in the neonatal ICU. Once the baby is home, the mother is supposed to be transferred to maternity benefits.
The problem is that every maternity benefit payment must be done manually for the duration of the maternity. If the Service Canada agent doesn't manually process the paperwork in time, the payments are late.
My staff contacted your officials about the specific case of Darlene, in my riding of Saskatoon West. Darlene had made many calls to Service Canada to change her EI to maternity leave after she gave birth three months prematurely.
She applied in October 2020, days after her baby was finally home from the hospital. Service Canada promptly cut her off and told her it would take three months for the maternity benefits to kick in. My office had to intervene multiple times with your officials. She is getting money now, but even a month ago she called about having another problem.
Minister, is this systemic failure, denying women maternity benefits, official Liberal government policy or simply lack of ministerial leadership by you to help women?