C-222 News at Hill Times

Legislation corner: Gov’t gets behind Beech’s parental leave bill

Liberal MP Terry Beech has accomplished a rare feat: getting government support for his private member’s bill.

In any given Parliament, most private members’ bills are either defeated or die on the Order Paper when Parliament is dissolved or prorogued. The latter could still happen, but the former seems unlikely, given that Beech’s bill C-222 received a unanimous vote of support in the House at second reading. It has now passed a committee review, and is at report stage in the House.

The bill proposes to allow parents who are on leave to care for a new baby to continue that leave if the child dies. It also proposes to give parents an extended bereavement leave if their child dies while they are not on parental leave.

The bill includes an exception in cases where a child dies as a result of a crime for which the parent is convicted.

Liberal MP Terry Beech. The Hill Times photograph by Andrew Meade

Beech told the House in October that he came up with the idea after he nearly lost one of his daughters to health complications at birth, and met other parents in similar situations.

“Under the current rules, once a child passes away, the family technically no longer qualifies for parental benefits. This means that the family begins to accrue a financial liability that will later have to be clawed back. Families can choose to switch to EI sickness benefits, which provide similar compensation, but doing so requires them to contact Service Canada, not just for the initial application, but for every two weeks thereafter to confirm their eligibility. I think we can all agree that this is a cruel and unnecessary burden. Imagine forcing grieving parents to repeatedly explain their tragedy to strangers every 14 days. That is the unfortunate reality of our current system,” he said.

Beech argued that his bill wouldn’t end up costing the government more money. Still, it would make a change to the terms of the government’s obligations to pay out benefits. As such, it cannot advance to a final vote in the House without the backing of the government.

Jobs Minister Patty Hajdu has signalled that the government is ready to provide that backing. Hajdu has given notice in the House of a Royal Recommendation for the bill, which means that it will be eligible to advance to a third-reading vote if it clears report stage.

Minister of Jobs and Families Patty Hajdu. The Hill Times photograph by Andrew Meade

Beech thanked Hajdu for helping him to shape the bill during his speech to the House back in October. He also gave a nod to Liberal MP Karina Gould for helping him to draft the bill.

In a statement sent to Politics This Morning yesterday, Beech said that C-222 is just the fourth private member’s bill in Canadian history to receive a Royal Recommendation. The bill was a collaboration between Gould and himself; both previously served as ministers overseeing Service Canada as part of the Trudeau government.

Liberal MP Karina Gould. The Hill Times photograph by Andrew Meade

Beech said that has was able to get “early support” for the bill from Hajdu and Finance Minister François-Phillipe Champagne. He said that Senator Sharon Burey has agreed to sponsor the bill in the Senate if it passes the House.

“It is my expectation that we can have this bill implemented before Christmas of this year,” he said.

Hajdu has also given notice of a series of proposed amendments to the bill. They are mostly technical amendments to make Beech’s benefit fit into the complicated Employment Insurance Act. The changes would also allow for parental leave to be extended in a case where a child dies at the end of the leave period, to ensure that a grieving parent will have at minimum five weeks of leave after their child’s death.