No parental leave for self-employed mommies and daddies in budget
Georgia Straight
Jan 27
By Pieta Woolley

Before today’s federal budget, rumours were swirling that Finance Minister Jim Flaherty would announce that self-employed Canadians were going to be able to opt in to Employment Insurance maternity and parental benefits.

Alas, it was just a rumour. …

In other words, having a baby will still send the following people to the poorhouse: artists, small-business owners, consultants, designers, restaurateurs, and other brave independent folks trying to make their mark on the world….

This issue is old news to West Coast LEAF’s executive director, Alison Brewin.

For more than a decade, the legal advocacy group has been using the courts to fight for better EI for women.

Brewin is outraged. “They didn’t need to do a consultation 15 years ago when they slashed the system back,” she told the Straight in a phone interview today (January 27). “They have the power and authority to make these changes.”

Brewin pointed out that parental leave is designed for folks who work full-time for an employer—the “antithesis of what women’s work patterns are”, she said.

The EI system takes money from the paycheques of people working seasonally or part-time, she explained, even if those people are not eligible for leave.

She also pointed out that Canada’s Constitution suggests that women’s lives should be considered when social programs are created. EI maternity and parental leave, she said, completely misses where Canadian women are at.

Only about two-thirds of women who have babies are eligible for maternity leave, according to a Human Resources and Skills Development Canada’s media representative.

“Why do they need to ask me?” Brewin said of the consultations. “It seems like the right thing to do. They need to spend money on consultation on that? Lord.”