Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.

What We Heard

Emergency Leave - Unpaid

Submissions from the both the Status of Women Council and the UNW emphasize there are concerns for potential undue financial hardships caused by mandatory unpaid emergency leave. Both organizations support the use of government resources to provide paid emergency leave to employees. The Status of Women advise the need for paid emergency leave was very important for employees to able to continue to take care of their loved ones:

".... Employees need to be able to take paid sick leave to care for 'individuals,' defined as an immediate family member, someone living with the employee, or someone with whom the employee has a relationship with an expectation of care. This is particularly impactful for LGBTQ workers and workers with a disability, who often have varied family forms and need paid leave that allows them to care for their loved ones."

The UNW provided examples from the COVID-19 pandemic stating, "this situation illustrates very clearly the financial hardship many workers face when they are unable to work because of emergency measures such as mandatory self-isolation or quarantine... especially when workers are unable to work for extended periods of time."

The UNW expressed concern that supporting documents suggested employees could access emergency federal benefits while on emergency leave, even though current benefits are set to expire September 2021. The UNW went on to suggest the department undertake public consultation prior to prescribing an emergency within the Employment Standards Regulations:

"....it is important that the public and key stakeholders are given the opportunity to provide input in the development of any regulations where the department intends to 'prescribe' an emergency under Section 30.3."

Emergency Leave - Too COVID-19 Specific

In their submission, Marshall Law Barrister and Solicitor commented that emergency leave criteria as set out in Bill 20 was too narrow and appeared to be specifically related to addressing COVID-19. They also suggested the department provide scenarios for when employees are entitled to access emergency leave.

Mr. Speaker, I will now pass the reading of the report to the MLA for Inuvik Twin Lakes. Mahsi.