Improving maternity and parental benefits for women outside of Québec

At the same time, the decision states that: “the social nature of unemployment insurance requires that Parliament be able to adapt the plan to the new realities of the workplace”.1 As of January 2006, the Québec Parental Insurance Plan offers much more generous benefits to a much broader group of new parents, including self-employed parents and the second parent in same-sex families. [...] In 2001, the government extended the duration of parental benefits and lowered the eligibility requirement to 600 hours for access to maternity and parental benefits. [...] Pilot Projects using the “Best 14 Weeks” for calculating the level of benefits are now underway in 23 different regions of Canada.8 NAWL recommends that maternity and parental benefits be calculated on the basis of the “Best 12 Weeks” in the last year in all regions of Canada. [...] The notion of job protection should be standardized to include the right to the same position or to an equivalent one if the position has been abolished, the right to wages and promotions to which the mother would have been entitled is she had been at work, the right to maintain and accumulate seniority as well as the right to continue to participate in employer pensions and insurance plans by pay