To all Chairpersons and Members of Employment Insurance Boards of Referees

Subject: Bill C-13, Fairness for Military Families

The Honourable Diane Finley, Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development, is pleased that Bill C-13, the legislation that facilitates access to Employment Insurance (EI) parental benefits for military families, has received Royal Assent. This amendment has a coming into force date of July 4th, 2010.

The new measure enables Canadian Forces members, including reservists, who had their parental leave deferred or were ordered to return to duty while on leave due to a military requirement, to access their EI parental benefits. The measure will extend the EI parental eligibility window by the number of weeks that the parental leave of a Canadian Forces member is deferred or interrupted because of a military requirement during that window.

The window will be extended by up to 52 weeks, for a total of up to 104 weeks, to allow these individuals to access part or all of the 35 weeks of EI parental benefits that are available to them.

In addition, the measure will also apply to all eligible Canadian Forces members who had a newborn or adopted a child less than 104 weeks prior to this legislation coming into force, and who had their parental leave deferred or interrupted because of a military requirement.

We encourage you to visit the following link to learn more about this Bill:

• Bill C-13