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Relieving Grieving Parents of an Administrative Burden Act (Evan's Law)

An Act to amend the Employment Insurance Act and the Canada Labour Code (death of a child)

Summary

  • Continues EI maternity/parental and self-employed special benefits for the remainder of the approved period even if a newborn or newly adopted child dies, unless the parent is convicted of an offence causing the death.
  • Waives the need to file a new EI claim or ongoing reports to prove eligibility after the child’s death.
  • Ensures employees covered by the Canada Labour Code retain their full maternity or parental leave entitlements for the original period despite the child’s death.
  • Seeks to relieve grieving parents from administrative burdens while preserving income support and job protection during the leave period.

Builder Assessment

Neutral

While the bill improves compassion and reduces bureaucracy for grieving parents, it does not advance growth, productivity, or competitiveness and likely increases program costs. Overall, it is incremental and primarily social in nature rather than an economic prosperity reform.

  • Strengths: Cuts red tape in EI and preserves job protection during bereavement; humane and predictable administration.
  • Weaknesses: Increases EI expenditures; no link to productivity, exports, or investment; incremental scope.
  • To better align: Pair with a broader EI modernization focused on digital-by-default processing and a “once-only” principle across benefits; publish a costed plan with offsets from administrative savings or fraud/error reduction; add return-to-work supports and mental-health services that shorten time to re-entry; set clear, actuarially costed parameters for bereavement duration; integrate with a government-wide red-tape reduction initiative.

Question Period Cards

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Principles Analysis

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Canada should aim to be the world's most prosperous country.

Humanitarian, targeted change with negligible macroeconomic growth implications.

✓

Promote economic freedom, ambition, and breaking from bureaucratic inertia (reduce red tape).

Cuts red tape by deeming continued eligibility and removing new-claim/reporting requirements during bereavement.

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Drive national productivity and global competitiveness.

Possible minor effects (longer paid leave vs. better mental health/retention) likely offset; macro impact unclear.

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Grow exports of Canadian products and resources.

No direct link to trade or export capacity.

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Encourage investment, innovation, and resource development.

No direct effects on capital formation, innovation incentives, or resource development.

✗

Deliver better public services at lower cost (government efficiency).

Service quality and administrative simplicity improve, but EI outlays rise; not a lower-cost change overall.

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Reform taxes to incentivize work, risk-taking, and innovation.

Does not modify tax structures or incentives.

✗

Focus on large-scale prosperity, not incrementalism.

A narrow administrative and compassion measure; not a large-scale prosperity reform.

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Email [email protected]

C-222

PartyLiberal
StatusOutside the Order of Precedence
Last updatedSep 18, 2025
Parliament45