Status of Women committee  Thank you, Chair, and good morning to all the members of the committee. I am pleased to have the opportunity today to give you an overview of the employment insurance program and the way in which it supports the economic security of women. Employment insurance, EI, is a foundat

Status of Women committee  I think what I can do first is to speak about what we know from the EI program specifically and the use of that program and parental benefits by men and women. Then I can speak to some of the academic research we are aware of that helps to inform our policy development. In term

Status of Women committee  Right now with the program, of course, it is up to parents to decide how they'd like to share those benefits. What we know from some of the academic research is that it tends to require additional incentives to get men to take parental benefits at an increased rate. This research

Status of Women committee  There has not been a large increase in men taking parental benefits over that period of time. We can certainly go back to the Statistics Canada data, but I think it has been a slow uptick. To build a bit further on your question, it's not just a matter of the government programs

Status of Women committee  That's about right.

Status of Women committee  That's not data that we have, but that is certainly one of the things that make their way into our thinking, that families would be making the decision in terms of who would provide care on a financial basis. If that is a household where a women is earning less than her partner,

Status of Women committee  In terms of top-ups, that's something that would be in the hands of the employers. To my knowledge, those would typically be available to men and women.

Status of Women committee  Thanks for the question. This does relate to an ongoing case that's before the court, so I can't speak to that class action in particular. I can speak to the current situation and note that in 2013, in fact, the rules of the employment insurance program were changed. It is possib

Status of Women committee  Perhaps I'll just try to jump in a bit there to mention that, certainly, leave is something that ESDC takes a lead on with our labour program. They've undertaken consultations over the last year with respect to more flexible leave provisions, and have received feedback that went

Status of Women committee  Thanks for the question. You are absolutely correct that there are 15 weeks available through the EI program for a worker who falls sick, whereas for a caregiver providing care for someone at the end of their life, and only in those end-of-life situations, there is up to 26 wee

Human Resources committee  Good afternoon. I am pleased to appear before you today as part of the committee's study of Bill C-243, a bill proposed by Mr. Mark Gerretsen, the member of Parliament for Kingston and the Islands. I am the senior director working on employment insurance policy at the Departmen

Human Resources committee  It doesn't provide for individual access to a greater number of weeks. However, if a person were currently to leave the workforce, for example, 12 weeks prior to...women who do not currently use all of their weeks of maternity and parental benefits. They have up to 15 weeks of ma

Human Resources committee  I don't think it's fair to say that it's budgeted that way. I think we have estimates that are developed and arrived at each year by the EI chief actuary. They look at the actual use of our benefits, whether regular benefits or special benefits. The benefits are not fully utiliz

Human Resources committee  Yes, that's correct, the 15 weeks and the 35 weeks for parental leave.

Human Resources committee  Parental benefits can begin after the child has been born, or in the case of adoptions, when the child has been placed for the purpose of adoption. The concern is that if benefits were advanced up to 15 weeks in advance of the expected due date, and if the child were to arrive