Improving Maternity and Parental Benefits

Women who have children are not receiving the support that they deserve. In particular, maternity and parental benefits are too low and many women cannot work the number of hours required to be eligible for those benefits under the Employment Insurance Act. However, as the recent reforms that have been implemented in Québec show, it is possible to significantly improve this situation!

NAWL has discussed this issue with women in different cities across Canada, and we have developed a series of proposals on how to improve maternity and parental benefits for women living outside of Québec (LINK). NAWL invites you to read their draft recommendations, and give them your comments by March 30, 2007.

NAWL will be organizing a workshop on May 10, just before their Mothering in Law Conference to discuss these proposals.

Please write to connections@nawl.ca if you would like more information.

Read NAWL's Brief: DRAFT: Improving Maternity and Parental Benefits for Women outside of Québec: Proposals for Law Reform (also available in PDF), NAWL, November 2006