Parental leave program invades province's jurisdiction, Quebec court

Community Action, Feb 16, 2004

OTIAWA -- Ottawa is violating provincial jurisdiction by offering parental leave through the Employment Insurance program, and EI should only be used to replace wages of those who have lost their jobs and not for social programs such as parental or compassionate leave says the Quebec Court of Appeal in an unanimous ruling.

The decision was prompted by a suit brought by the former Partis Quebecois government who wanted to introduce its own, more generous parental leave program; the current provincial Liberal government also supports the action. The Quebec Liberals urged the federal government to abandon its parental and compassionate leave programs under El and instead negotiate a transfer of funds to the province for their own parental leave program.

Although the federal government has 60 days within which to appeal the ruling, Prime Minister Paul Martin indicated that the government has not yet decided to appeal the decision, saying that the government is committed to its children's agenda and to compassionate leave.

Noting the ruling will not have an immediate impact on families and their parental leaves, Martin said "the first thing to make very, very clear is that payments will continue so that parents who are receiving those payments should have no worries, no concerns that those payments will (not) continue."

Other groups reacted differently to the ruling with the Canadian Labour Congress urging Ottawa to appeal the ruling while the Canadian Chamber of Commerce applauded the Court's decision.