There is a provision for self-employed people to choose to pay into EI so they can access parental leave benefits. That's a new provision that was put in place a couple of years ago.
The larger question for me is around extending the eligibility of people who have access to parental leave benefits and looking to our neighbours in Quebec for lower eligibility criteria. We know that women have patchwork careers because they tend to care for their children so they're moving in and out of work. That means they're often not eligible. If someone is self-employed, she may not be able to afford to pay into EI for a while. If we lowered the eligibility criteria we would widen the access for people to have parental leave benefits.