OPACC's involvement with new EI legislation - how it may affect you and what you can do to help!
The federal government recently announced that it will create a new employment insurance (EI) benefit for parents who need to take time off of work to care for seriously ill children. This is good news indeed for our families! Details are still being worked out, but you can read more about it in this CBC news article here: http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/story/2012/08/07/pol-stephen-harper-british-columbia.html
OPACC wanted to share with you how we have been involved in helping to see this important piece of legislation come to pass. Sharon Ruth, a parent of a child with cancer, has been a tireless crusader to see this legislation through, and we are proud to count her among our OPACC membership. Our Parent Liaison, Susan Kuczynski, has worked closely with Sharon and also with Denise Page from the Canadian Cancer Society in trying to see this initiative come to be. Although Susan could not make it out to Vancouver last week for the Prime Minister's announcement, she did the next best thing in introducing Mr. Dan Mornar of the British Columbia Childhood Cancer Parents Association to Sharon and Denise, and he found some local families who were able to be there.
Please note that this new assistance should be in place by June 2013. However, OPACC believes that our kids and families can't wait any longer on this issue! We are putting out a call to action to our members to write their local MP's thanking them for this initiative, but also asking them for the June 2013 date to be moved up. You can look up your local MP on this website:
We will be doing our part as well, of course, to continue to advocate and lobby government to see an earlier start date to this initiative. This is just one more way that OPACC is helping to represent our families and their needs!