Yes, certainly. Thank you for the opportunity.
Although we have the Quebec parental insurance plan, the fact remains that there are parents who call us about this, whether it's the Comité Chômage du Haut-Richelieu et du Suroît or other organizations that do the same thing.
It's been said over and over again that the last thing a parent needs is bureaucracy. It's also important to understand that asking a parent to send a death certificate in this context is an act of violence. I think it's important to use that word. It's also a bit of administrative violence for the Canada Revenue Agency to send a notice of debt, because, for purely administrative reasons, there may have been a week or two of overlap.
There's also something that adds to all the steps they have to take during that time. Everyone knows what it's like to lose a loved one. I have not experienced the loss of a child, but I have experienced the loss of a father at a very young age. You have to shop for funeral services, you have to call employers, you have to talk to the hospital, you have to retrieve personal belongings. If it happens at home, there are drugs or tools belonging to the hospital that are still in the house. The medical team will come and pick them up. These are people we have known for months. They're going to take their things and say good-bye.
I'm speaking for parents, but it's true for all caregivers as well. Health care workers become a bit like members of the community when they provide home support. Then, all of a sudden, they take the medical items and leave. It's hard. If we add to that the bureaucracy that comes with the issue of maternity and parental benefits, that's one more layer, one layer too many.
In terms of the amendment we're recommending, the basic idea is this. The employment insurance program has benefits for caregivers. These benefits are the same across Canada, including in Quebec. The bill provides a mechanism so that a claimant who receives parental benefits can, despite the death of the child, continue to receive the benefits to the end instead of having to apply for sickness benefits.
All we're asking is that we do the same for the critically ill child benefit and the compassionate care benefit where the loved one is a child under 18. Harmonize it with the Canada Labour Code and it's a done deal.
If you do that, you're helping thousands of parents of children under 18 who are eligible for these benefits. We're talking about a handful of people, but for those people, it's going to be huge.