The Conservative MP who previously pushed legislation ahead in Alberta that introduced job-protected leave for employees who are supporting a dying family member will use his opportunity to introduce legislation early in the 43rd Parliament to table a bill that would give Canadians more flexibility under the federal compassionate care leave program.

Matt Jeneroux announced across his social media channels that he will use his 10th spot on the list of MPs who can introduce private members’ legislation to open up the Canada Labour Code program.

Update: announcing more about my forthcoming Private Members’ Bill, which proposes to extend Compassionate Care Leave. #cdnpoli pic.twitter.com/rbPSQxTuim — Matt Jeneroux, MP (@jeneroux) February 4, 2020

Currently, employees in Canada are allowed to take up to six months off of work in a year to help care for a dying family member. When employees take leave for this reason, employers don’t have to pay them. Instead, employees are entitled to receive up to 55 per cent of their earnings (to a maximum of $573 a week) through the federal Employment Insurance (EI) program while they’re off work. Canada’s labour laws require employers to reinstate their employees to their former position – with the same wages and benefits – once they return from leave for caring for a dying family member.

If the loved one they’re caring for dies, the employee who’s on leave has to return to work within days.

Jeneroux, who has represented the federal riding of Edmonton Riverbend since the 2015 election and was recently named the Conservative critic on health issues, explained to iPolitics that the purpose of the bill he plans on tabling is to allow caregivers to take time off after the loved one they’re caring for passes away.

“We’re adding the buffer that you can now take up to three weeks after a loved one dies, because as you can imagine, there’s probably some funeral planning, some estate details you need to sort out, you need to talk to the bank, lawyers and so on and so forth, that going back to work the very next day is a bit of a stretch for some people,” Jeneroux said.

His bill would extend the period that caregivers have off after the person they’re caring for dies by one and three more weeks.

He’s proposing that employees be given three weeks of leave after their loved one dies if they’ve been off of work and caring for them for fewer than five weeks; that employees get two weeks off work after their loved one dies if they’ve been off for between five and 20 weeks; and that employees are allowed an additional week off if they’ve already taken more than 20 weeks of leave.

The limits of the proposed leave-lengths would not increase the total amount of time that employees are allowed off work, which was taken into account by the Library of Parliament, who a staff member of Jeneroux’s said was tasked with studying the bill’s feasibility. Jeneroux said the parliamentary library’s analysis determined there would only be a “small expenditure” from the existing EI budget to account for the proposed changes.

Only bills tabled by ministers are allowed to expend new revenue.

While he wouldn’t name any specific MPs, Jeneroux said he is hopeful his bill will be supported across party lines.

“I haven’t asked them to sign on board, but yeah, I’ve spoken to at least one person in each of the party that will hopefully able to champion it when the time comes when it’s presented the house,” Jeneroux said.

Jeneroux’s Bill 203

Jeneroux was first elected to public office to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta in 2012. As a Progressive Conservative MLA, he was behind the tabling and passage of private members’ Bill 203. His legislation, which was commonly called the Compassionate Care Leave bill, allowed employees who had worked for a company for a year to be permitted to take up to eight weeks of leave to care for a seriously ill family member. By that time, every other province had passed laws allowing for job-protected leave to take care of a dying family member.

Jeneroux’s passion for the issue comes from a personal experience of not feeling he could take time away from work while his grandmother was dying, he said.

Jeneroux said he was fresh out of the University of Alberta and working a competitive job with the Alberta Blue Cross when she fell ill.

“I was hired with a team of, I think there was seven or eight of us. And basically (we were) competing for two jobs, which is typical kind of out of a university entry level job. You try to show you’re doing well and then you get hired. Anyways, my grandma fell ill during that period and I had to make the decision on whether or not to go and spend time with her or stay at my job and hopefully get one of the permanent jobs offered after the fact,” Jeneroux said.

Instead of taking time off to take care of his grandmother he stuck with his job.

“I made the decision – which I regret to this day – to stay at the job and my grandma passed away at the time and I thought, you know, if I’m ever in a position to kind of force this issue that allows compassionate care leave to be considered as a more of a mainstream benefit I’d certainly push for that,” Jeneroux said.

Jeneroux won the right to be 10th among MPs to table bills or motions of their choosing in a draw on Dec 11. The draw is customary at the beginning of every new Parliamentary sitting. The formal order of precedence for the daily hour dedicated in the House to private members’ business has to be set no later than the 20th sitting day after the draw of every new Parliament, which will be about three weeks from now.

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The last significant expansion of Canada’s compassionate care leave program came courtesy of the Harper government’s final budget. The previous Conservative government expanded the program to allow for six months of EI-eligible leave, which was more than four times the previously permitted length of time off of six weeks.

READ MORE: The budget’s slice of compassionate Conservatism: extended leave for caregivers

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