The Liberal minority government needs support from an opposition party to avoid a needed election. The NDP sees an opportunity to advance its socialist agenda. Neither party has the best interests of workers at heart. Extended sick leave has a price tag that can result in fewer jobs.
Federal
government insists it's up to Ontario to make businesses pay for sick leave
-- Ottawa rejected the province's offer to top up the Canada recovery sickness
benefit for Ontario residents
Samantha Beattie ~~ CBC News ~~ Apr 27, 2021
Ottawa is rejecting Ontario's offer to top up the federal paid sick
leave program to $1,000 a week for provincial residents instead of creating its
own.
In an April 22 letter to federal Finance Minister Chrystia
Freeland obtained by CBC News, Ontario Finance Minister
Peter Bethlenfalvy said the province is prepared to
immediately double the Canada recovery sickness benefit for every Ontario
resident, instead of launching its own paid sick day initiative or making
businesses provide paid sick days to employees.
"We believe that this is the simplest and fastest way to increase
program uptake and makes this program more effective for those people who are
sick, don't have employer paid sick leave, and need this program the
most," Bethlenfalvy wrote.
The federal government said its wage subsidy program is already in place
to help employers pay workers who are on sick leave. And the Canada recovery
sickness benefit is designed to support workers who don't have a regular
employer, or as a stop gap until their province mandates paid sick days,
Freeland spokesperson Katherine Cuplinskas said in a statement to CBC
News.
"When Ontario is ready to mandate sick leave in provincially regulated businesses, as we have done for federally regulated businesses, we will be there to help," Cuplinskas said.
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The NDP sees the chance to extend expanded sick leave benefits for all workers as its price for supporting the Liberal budget.
The people who get a kick in the teeth are small business owners and hourly
paid workers.
Trudeau is dishonest. Employees in federally regulated businesses are mostly
unionized, well paid and have generous employee benefits. Small businesses are
provincially regulated. That is where the cost and economic harm will come in.
Dealing with the coronavirus epidemic calls for drastic actions, including wage
replacement that allows generous sick leave benefits for essential workers
exposed to or suffering COVID-19. We need them to stay home to avoid infecting
others.
Providing all workers with universal extensive paid sick leave is a different
issue. Such a plan should not be implemented without comprehensive studies on
(1) how much drag the move will put on our economic recovery; and (2) what
impact the costs will have on small business employment and the labour market.
There is too much at risk to plunge ahead base on ideological principles.
Forcing employers to carry the costs of extended sick leave benefits will mean
fewer jobs.
The devil is in the details. Virus quarantines are 14 days – between 10 and 12
working days. The long sick leave is not needed except during an epidemic.
Forcing increased costs on the small business sector trying to recover from
prolonged forced closures is ridiculous. The net result is that fewer employees
laid off due to the epidemic will have jobs to return to. The NDP can force the
Liberal hand, but the cost is increased unemployment and a slower economic
recovery.
Who speaks for the working person? Certainly no one in the current parliament.
John Feldsted ... is a political commentator, consultant, and strategist. He makes his home in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
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