Hello. Thank you again for giving us this time and opportunity to speak to you.
I'm a public servant and, as Rob mentioned, I continued working during my pregnancy after Aaron's diagnosis, in a role that dealt with very difficult subject matter while parenting a toddler. After Aaron's passing, I returned to work after my 17-week maternity leave ended. I was ineligible for parental leave because my baby had died. I had to provide Aaron's death certificate upon my return to work. I was also not given bereavement leave at this time because I was on maternity leave when he passed away. I was told that I was not allowed to take my bereavement leave.
After my maternity leave ended, I returned to work, Rob started his fall semester of nursing school and our two-year-old started day care. Employment insurance benefits were never mentioned as an option for me. I couldn't cope with working full time, and I returned to work at 80%. This meant taking a pay cut and being the sole income for our family. If I had been able to take parental leave during this time, the healing process would have been much easier, and I would not have been penalized financially for the loss of our child.
The return to work after the loss of a child is extremely difficult. People are unsure of how to approach you. Some colleagues were unaware of our loss and asked why I was back so soon from my maternity leave, which left me in the position of having to explain the story to them.
To compound matters, unknown to us someone at the hospital had checked a box that meant we would automatically receive the Canada child benefit for Aaron. In June 2020, I noticed that Aaron's name was listed on the back of the statement. We had unknowingly incurred $14,000 in debt to the government, which was paid back by clawing back the CCB benefit for the next several years from our living children. Rectifying the situation meant that I had to call the Canada Revenue Agency numerous times and was forced to retell the story of our loss to numerous service agents, both retraumatizing me and causing vicarious trauma to them. They also did not seem trained in this type of loss or in what to say after I had to tell our story.
Aaron's life was not in vain. When he was born, he was surrounded by love for his entire life, and he passed away painlessly in our arms. To process our grief, we founded the Butterfly Run Ottawa to raise awareness for pregnancy and infant loss, as well as funds for Roger Neilson house. In the last nine years, it has raised over $600,000 for the perinatal programs at Roger Neilson house.
After two years, we successfully transitioned leadership to others and were able to continue the next chapter of our lives. We worked with MP Blake Richards, Sarah and Lee Cormier and others to get motion 110 passed.
Again, I know that it's been mentioned already, but thank you, Blake, for all of your help and everything you've done to support parents. It has been truly appreciated.
In 2018, we went on to have another healthy son, Matthias, and Rob graduated from nursing school in 2019.
In conclusion, we encourage you to support Bill C-222 and to ensure the wording of the bill includes parents in situations like ours so that they can access full parental leave benefits after the loss of their child. This is something that is a small change. It's a small procedural change, but it's something that will make an impact on thousands of lives going forward.
Thank you.