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E
nsuring
W
ork
-F
amily
B
alance
for up to 35 weeks. Federal maternity and parental benefits
are available to parents who are eligible for employment
insurance. Payments are equal to 55 per cent of the parent’s
prior earnings up to a maximum of Can$45,900 as of 2012.
Low-income families are also eligible for an additional
Employment Insurance Family Supplement.
As part of its comprehensive family policy, Québec mothers
are eligible for maternity benefits for 70 per cent of prior
earnings up to a maximum of 18 weeks under the Basic Plan
(under the Special Plan, they can receive 75 per cent of their
earnings for 15 weeks). Fathers in Québec can receive pater-
nal benefits amounting to 70 per cent of their prior earnings
for five weeks under the Basic Plan or 75 per cent of their
prior earnings for three weeks. Québec has also maintained a
subsidized day-care programme since 1997 in which parents
can spend Can$7 per day to receive licensed childcare (which
can cost over Can$50 a day elsewhere in Canada).
All provinces combined, 25.4 per cent of recent fathers took
parental leave in 2012, up from 3 per cent in 2000. However,
since the Québec Parental Insurance Plan was introduced in
2006 the number of fathers who claimed or intended to claim
parental benefits has tripled, from 27.8 per cent in 2005 to
83.9 per cent in 2011. Since 2004, families in Canada who
leave work to care for a terminally ill family member also have
access to a Compassionate Care Benefit, paid at the same rate
as maternity and parental leave.
Employer response is slow to evolve. Most employers still
respond case-by-case to this changing reality. Researchers
Lero and Fast, in partnership with the Vanier Institute, found
that only 51 per cent of employers in a recent study on caregiv-
ing and work consider work-family flexibility strategically.
In the 1980s, employers in Canada’s financial services,
health care, education and public sectors began responding
to the large number of women entering the paid labour force
with children under two years of age, by offering temporary
‘alternative work arrangements’ – an alternative to a normal or
standard work week and career path. In the 1990s, employers
continued to respond by offering ‘flexible work arrangements’,
no longer assuming a typical or normal work week or career
path. In the 2000s, employers committed to work-family
or work-life or corporate social responsibility began offer-
ing ‘customized work plans’, crafting individual strategies to
maximize productivity, optimize performance and minimize
work-family conflict. Employers started creating unique work
plans related to how, when and where work was to be done
and devising individualized career paths, including advance-
ment and development strategies that integrate leaves and
breaks more consciously and proactively.
While there is still much work to be done to address the
need of seasonal, low-wage, contract, late-career and low-
skilled workers and those in remote, high risk and 24-7 work
environments, progress is being made. With more fathers
taking paternity and parental leave, becoming more involved
in caregiving and household management, more women
contributing half or more of the household income, more than
one third of first-time grandparents in the paid labour force
and more seniors in the labour force, progress will continue
to be made in the years to come.
Image: The Vanier Institute of the Family
The number of fathers who claimed or intended to claim parental benefits has tripled since the Québec Parental Insurance Plan was introduced