As of January 2011, self-employed persons can opt-in to the special benefits programs under Employment Insurance, including maternity and parental benefits.

Since 2006, our government has adopted a number of measures to improve employment insurance, including the following: an extra five weeks of regular benefits were added and more than 500,000 Canadians have used them; the 2010 budget has extended by one year the improved version of the work-sharing program, which currently protects the jobs of 150,000 Canadians; unprecedented investments in training were made in order to help unemployed Canadians return to work — whether or not they were eligible for employment insurance — for a total of $1.5 billion over two years to help 150,000 Canadians in 2009-10; an additional 5 to 20 weeks of em ...[+++]ployment insurance benefits were made available to long-tenured workers who paid into EI for many years and have difficulty finding new jobs; a total of 2.6 million self-employed workers gained voluntary access to special benefits, which has been a long-standing demand; the 2010 budget has made it easier for relatives of crime victims to access sickness benefits; for the first time ever, 2.6 million self-employed workers in Canada have access to sickness and compassionate care benefits under the employment insurance program; and in 2006, our government expanded the number of family members and others who can receive compassionate care benefits.

Under this bill, our government is proposing to do the right thing by giving the self-employed the ability to voluntarily opt into the EI program to be able to receive EI special benefits, which include maternity, parental, sickness and compassionate care benefits.

It is interesting to note that the Committee on the Status of Women in the other place recommended last June that the EI maternity and parental benefits program be expanded to two years, the benefit rate be increased to 60 per cent, the eligibility criteria be amended to increase access to benefits to persons in part-time or part-year work, qualifying requirements be changed to allow parents to reach back over the three-to-five-year period prior to the birth of the child, and that the act be amended to allow self-employed persons to opt ...[+++] into the special benefits program under EI. As honourable senators have just heard, all of these recommendations made by the committee in the other place were also made in the Women's Network PEI report.

The programme called "Partnerships for the Delivery of Primary Health Care including HIV/AIDS", targets the poorest of the poor through community and home based care initiatives.

38. Points out that such programmes must be integrated with macroeconomic policy, in particular in developing countries that are planning or already undergoing structural reforms; calls in this context on the Commission to raise awareness of the negative effects of the implementation of structural adjustment policies on the health and education sector affecting women and girls disproportionately, which on occasions have undermined efforts in the health sector as they weaken the national health systems, which should instead be strengthened as they are essential in combating the major diseases; stresses therefore the importance of introd ...[+++]ucing reliable and comprehensive indicators for assessing progress made in the provision of health care services as well as gauging the impact of macroeconomic policies on the health of the population, particularly of the poorest of the poor;