e-4095 (Employment and labour)

The Government of Canada thanks the petitioners for sharing their views and notes the request to implement a 15-week additional attachment leave benefit under the Employment Insurance (EI) program to support healthy and secure attachment for families formed by adoption, kinship, and customary care.

Balancing family, work and financial considerations is a challenging task for Canadians raising young children, and in 2019, the Government of Canada introduced changes to give parents more flexibility in their use of EI parental benefits.

Currently, all parents who qualify, including adoptive parents, can receive EI parental benefits to care for their newborn or newly adopted child or children (maximum of 40 weeks or 69 weeks in the case of extended parental benefits). The 15-week maternity benefit is reserved for the person who is pregnant or has recently given birth to support recovery from pregnancy and childbirth.

The Government is committed to building a modern EI program that is stronger and more inclusive for all workers, including adoptive parents, as per the Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Disability Inclusion’s mandate letter. Comprehensive consultations on EI modernization were held in 2021 and 2022 with stakeholders and Canadians, during which the needs of adoptive parents were discussed, as was the need to make EI maternity and parental benefits more inclusive of the way families are formed.

The extensive input from the consultations and lessons learned from the pandemic will inform the development of the plan for EI modernization, including on the importance of making EI more inclusive for workers and their families. The Government of Canada will release its plan on EI modernization once this work is complete in the coming months.  

Once again, the government wishes to thank the petitioners.  Their views will be taken into consideration in our ongoing efforts to improve the EI program.