Human Resources committee  Self-employed workers have access to a voluntary employment insurance program, meaning that they have to choose to sign up for and pay into the regime, which gives them access to maternity and parental benefits. Only about 15,000 individuals across the country participate in th

Human Resources committee  I just want to note one little imprecision in that Bill C-243, as presented by Mr. Gerretsen, would allow a woman to start 15 weeks in advance if required and if a doctor agreed that the workplace were unsafe. The government has announced the flexibility to allow a woman to begin

Human Resources committee  Do you mean in terms of what was announced in the budget for parental benefits?

Human Resources committee  The way parental benefits currently work in Canada outside of Quebec is that you can access combined maternity and parental benefits for up to 12 months and at the current EI replacement rate, which is at 55% of your average weekly earnings. What was announced yesterday is that

Human Resources committee  There are different pieces there. There are the maternity and parental benefits, but overall the package with respect to special benefits—I'll focus on maternity and parental benefits—provides additional flexibility to families so they can select what works best for their family,

Human Resources committee  I would speak to the service standard for processing EI applications, which is to process them within 28 calendar days. I'm not sure of the latest figures, but I know that we have been meeting the target of processing 80% of claims within those 28 days.

Human Resources committee  What was proposed was simply to allow women to start maternity benefits sooner. So it would not require something new to come from her or her doctor or primary caregiver. That represents a difference from what is being proposed in Bill C-243. There's the potential that adding new

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

Human Resources committee  The gap would not incur costs for the EI operating account, but, as I explained earlier, we look at how it's used overall.

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

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

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