The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
The Honourable Joe Volpe, Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development (HRSD), has announced that the Compassionate Care benefit is now available for Canadians who are eligible for Employment Insurance (EI). "The Government of Canada believes that Canadians should not have to choose between their job and caring for their family during a serious medical crisis," said Minister Volpe. "The Compassionate Care benefit will allow eligible Canadians to deal with these serious family issues." Compassionate Care is a special benefit of Employment Insurance that provides temporary income support for eligible workers who have obtained the necessary medical certificate and who take leave to provide care or support for a family member who has a significant risk of death within six months. See 'Choices' P.# Con't from P.# The program was designed to be flexible and can be shared with other EI- eligible family members. "We want to provide families with more choices to decide how they can best provide quality care for the gravely ill family member," said Minister Volpe. Eligible workers can claim the benefit to care for a spouse, a child, a parent or a common-law partner. The Compassionate Care benefit, one of the first of its kind in the world, is a complement to the EI Parental benefit set up in 2000, which allows parents to take up to a full year of leave for a newborn or adopted child.
