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Women's Network PEI Newsletter Article:
Women's Network Goes to Ottawa! June/July 2005
Submitted by Michelle Genge-Harris
What an exciting adventure! It was Women's Network's May Run – the first week of May, Laurie Ann McCardle (Executive Director for Women's Network PEI), Michelle Genge-Harris (Communications Officer for Women's Network PEI) and Sandy Bentley (Interministerial Women's Secretariat) met with a number of MPs, Cabinet Ministers, Senators, and Policy Think Tanks to discuss Maternity and Parental Benefits in Canada and how they can be improved – and actually become accessible – for more women.
Our main goal was to discuss the eleven recommendations Women's Network PEI developed with the help of representatives from equality-seeking women's organizations across the Atlantic Provinces and community partners who sat on the Advisory Committee for this project.
The recommendations are split into four main focuses:
1. Eligibility
We recommend that the federal government extend eligibility for maternity and parental benefits by allowing self-employed individuals the option to pay into the Employment Insurance program.
We recommend that the federal government extend eligibility for maternity and parental benefits by enacting a 360-hour qualification requirement, regardless of regional unemployment rates.
We recommend that the federal government extend eligibility for maternity and parental benefits by allowing an option for parents to "look back" or reach back hours over a three- to five-year period prior to the birth of a child.
2. Length and Value of Benefits
We recommend the federal government eliminate the current two-week waiting period for maternity and parental benefits.
We recommend the federal government offer an additional two weeks of paid benefits, commencing immediately when an eligible worker files a claim.
We recommend the federal government improve the wage replacement for maternity and parental benefits by increasing the weekly payable benefits from 55% of insurable earnings to 65% of insurable earnings, based on the best twelve weeks of earnings in the last three to five years.
We recommend the federal government improve the wage replacement for maternity and parental benefits by increasing the maximum insurable earnings to $57,000, indexed annually.
We recommend the federal government improve the wage replacement for maternity and parental benefits by increasing the current Family Supplement rate to 100%. We recommend the federal government improve the wage replacement for maternity and parental benefits by increasing the Low Income Cut-Off from $25,921 to $30,000.
3. Employment Protection
We recommend the federal government undertake consultation with the provinces in order to establish national standards for employment protection as it relates to maternity and parental leave, based on best practices and gender-based analysis.
4. Issues for Further Consideration:
We recommend the federal government undertake research into a continuum-of-care model for a national caregiver strategy to meet the needs of Canadians.
Each person or group who we met with were very interested in our recommendations and provided their input as to how they can be implemented or discussed ways in which they can help with this issue. Everyone was quite gracious and it was exciting to see the political machine in action. This is one step in the marathon towards economic equality for more women; but every building has to be built one brick at a time. In one week, it feels like we put up and entire wall. Hillary Rodham-Clinton said that it takes a community to raise a child – what I'm discovering is that it takes people, community groups, and politicians working together to make positive steps for a woman's first year with her baby. Let's all get our running shoes on to continue to make this a reality for all women and babies in Canada!
Women's Network Office
located at 40 Enman Crescent, in Charlottetown
mailing address:
P.O. Box 233,
Charlottetown, PEI C1A 7K4
phone: (902) 368-5040
fax: (902) 368-5039
e-mail:
wnpei@wnpei.org