EI program would ease burden on parents

EI program would ease burden on parents: Mom
The Windsor Star - Mon 26 May 2008
Byline: Norma Greenaway - Dateline: OTTAWA
Source: Canwest News Service

OTTAWA - Fiona McKenney knows first-hand every parent's worst nightmare --
having a child diagnosed with cancer.

She knows the around-the-clock angst, and shudders at the memory of being
flooded by waves of physical and mental exhaustion.

McKenney also remembers the stress it put on her family's finances when she had to take an unpaid leave from her job as a child-care worker to be at her son Joshua's side through months of treatments.

"Imagine going through hell and back for your child, and having to worry about
the bills as well," she says.

The experience has turned McKenney into a leading crusader for a federal
compassionate care program that would provide Employment Insurance benefits to parents forced to stop working to care for a gravely ill child.

"I'm not asking the government for a free handout," says McKenney, who paid into the EI fund for 11 years before Joshua was diagnosed at age five with Hodgkin's Lymphoma.

The cause has attracted the attention of Conservative MP Gord Brown, who this
month introduced a private member's bill in the House of Commons that would
allow parents of seriously ill children to collect up to 52 weeks of EI benefits.

The Childhood Cancer Foundation Candlelighters Canada and National Family Child Care Association also support the idea and there's an active Facebook group where parents of sick children are weighing in on the issue.

"It's the right thing to do, and I'm going to continue to push it," said Brown,
MP for the Ontario riding of Leeds-Grenville.

Sara Landriault, head of the child care association, sees the issue as a major
test of the Harper government's professed interest in pursuing family-friendly
polices, not to mention similar claims by the federal opposition parties.

"Who is going to say no to this? It's not going to happen. If it does, they will
be crucified," said Landriault.

The existing compassionate leave program allows caregivers to receive up to six weeks of EI benefits on condition they provide a doctor's certificate that their loved one is not expected to live beyond six months.