The editorial answers you | Let’s improve employment insurance for the sick

Stephanie Grammond
Press

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Q : Justin Trudeau has since been elected to increase the number of weeks of employment insurance for people suffering from a serious illness (currently 15 weeks). These people experience great stress in addition to that generated by their illness. It is necessary to talk about it.

Carolle H.

R : You are right, Carolle. This is an important aspect of the Employment Insurance (EI) program that requires fundamental reform, as I wrote in my editorial last weekend. Currently, people with a serious illness receive a maximum of 15 weeks of benefits, which can have very serious consequences, especially for those who do not have a group insurance program. For some, social assistance is the only option, which is sad. It is also very unfair, since natural caregivers are entitled to 26 weeks to care for a loved one at the end of their life and to 35 weeks to care for a child. Go figure… It would therefore be desirable to increase the limit, keeping in mind that many other countries are more generous towards people suffering from a serious illness, in particular the United Kingdom (52 ​​weeks), Japan (72 weeks). weeks), Germany (78 weeks) and France (156 weeks). In its budget last spring, the Liberal Party decided to cut benefits to 26 weeks from the summer of 2022. But that is too little to the liking of the opposition. The New Democrats are calling for 50 weeks, as are the Bloc Québécois, who introduced a bill to this effect last February in honor of Émilie Sansfaçon, a young woman who had to return to work for less than one week. week after the end of his chemotherapy treatments, for financial reasons. She then passed away. Only the Liberals voted against the Bloc bill. The Conservatives, who agreed, have even just outbid them by promising 52 weeks. Who says better ?

Read the editorial “Employment insurance: let’s drop the painkillers, find a real cure”