The Senate gave quick approval Thursday to a new round of coronavirus pandemic aid after federal Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland made a pre-holiday plea to rubber-stamp the help and promised that benefits would flow quickly to employers and employees in need.
Bill C-2 would provide targeted aid to businesses that are ordered closed and to workers sent home, as part of a local lockdown, as well as wage and rent subsidies to those still recovering from previous pandemic restrictions. The bill deems a lockdown to be when a health authority orders non-essential businesses closed and non-essential workers to stay home.
Read: Federal government extending pandemic aid for employers, employees
Although Freeland didn’t put a specific time frame on when benefits start to flow, she said the government plans to use existing systems for applications and payments in order to quickly dole out aid. “This is a fast-moving situation on the ground, as we are seeing provinces and territories quite appropriately, let me say, responding to COVID and to Omicron, and putting new restrictions in place.”
Bill C-3, which would provide 10 days of paid sick leave for federally regulated workers and crack down on harassment and intimidation of health-care workers, was also fast-tracked Thursday through the Commons without a recorded vote and sent on to the Senate.
Bill C-3 was passed with several amendments, one of which incorporated a Conservative private member’s bill providing for extended, unpaid bereavement leave for parents who experience a stillbirth or death of a child.
Read: Government open to amending paid sick days legislation for federally regulated workers
Two other amendments were intended to address concerns that workers would only slowly accumulate their entitlement to paid sick leave, at a rate of one day per month of work, and an employer could demand a doctor’s note to validate sick days off.
As amended, the bill now proposes that workers would accumulate three days of paid sick leave after one month and, after two months, would start accruing one additional sick day per month to a maximum of 10 days per year. Employers could still request a medical certificate but only when a worker claims more than five consecutive sick days.
Government House Leader Mark Holland praised opposition parties for being “incredibly reasonable” and willing to collaborate to get all of the Liberals’ priority bills quickly through the Commons in less than four weeks since the start of the new session of Parliament.
Read: Liberals introducing legislation on paid sick days for federally regulated employees