As it is right now, families that are formed through surrogacy or adoption receive 15 fewer weeks' leave, so that's 15 fewer weeks than people who chose not to go through surrogacy or adoption. What that means is that there are 15 fewer weeks of EI that can be claimed through the special benefit, so this benefit isn't labelled as a “time to attach” benefit, which would then give parity.
A lot of people don't know that when a woman says she's going on maternity leave, there are two benefits there. There's the maternity benefit and then the parental leave benefit, so this bill just mirrors that. If families want to extend their leave—because we know that this was done a few years ago—parents can then extend their parental leave if they so wish. They still have that opportunity to extend the leave in the parental portion, but it's just mirroring the maternity time.
The PBO's costing in his reports shows that there would be no impact to EI premiums for Canadians who have to pay into EI, as all Canadians do when they work for an employer, and then they remit that money.