In a sense, Émilie was one of those workers just starting out in their careers. She was a simple administrator who did accounting work. She had no social safety net. She believed that, if she lost her job, the employment insurance program would give her up to 40 or 42 weeks to find another one. It would be interesting to conduct a survey or do a vox pop on the issue. I would actually be curious to find out how many people know that they are entitled only to 15 weeks of special sickness benefits, starting on the day they fall ill.
If Émilie have been able to get 50 weeks of benefits, she might have avoided having to overdo things and cause herself physical problems by returning to work before she was able to.
We will never know whether it hurt her. The fact remains that, in my opinion, attitude is important when one is ill. Émilie believed that too. And I was diagnosed with multiple myeloma and bone cancer a few years ago. However, when you have to pay your bills, look after a child, and incur new expenses in medical transportation, it is difficult. All kinds of things are added into the unknown. The only known in that situation is that you just have 15 weeks of benefits.
If someone were able to know that, as of now, they could count on 50 weeks of benefits, I am convinced that it would do them a great deal of good, both mentally and in terms of their attitude to the illness and to the family. It would not cure anything at all, but it would help with the return to work.
As a former employer, I would prefer to see an employee take 26, 28, 30 or 34 weeks of leave and then come back to work in good shape. I would not like to see them come back at the end of the 16th week and pretend to be in shape. It's not possible, it's not productive and it's not good.