Question Period Note: LEAVE PROVISIONS AND CHILDCARE

When will the government revisit the leave provisions that were put in place for public servants in response to the COVID-19 pandemic?

• The Government of Canada has taken exceptional measures to curb the COVID-19 pandemic and to protect the health and safety of its employees and the broader population.
• We have ensured that the vast majority of public servants have been able to work most of the time through the pandemic.
• Flexible work arrangements and exceptional leave provisions have been made available to those employees who experienced challenges in being able to work, whether because they were sick or at risk of getting sick, didn’t have childcare, or couldn’t access their IT network.
• Our data shows that public servants accessed this leave based on individual need and organizational requirements in the early weeks of the pandemic.
• In the last months, there has been a significant and steady decline in usage.
• We continue to encourage the use of flexible work arrangements, wherever possible.
• As we did with our return to formal work site planning, we have been engaging bargaining agents on the way forward for these exceptional leave provisions, keeping in mind our collective responsibilities to Canadians and the need to adjust to the epidemiological situation, as necessary.

Since March 2020, the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat (TBS) has been providing guidance to departments and agencies and asking them to be as flexible as possible in leveraging their authorities around existing telework and alternative work arrangements to accommodate employees. These flexibilities also include manager discretion to approve ‘Other Leave With Pay (699)’ for employees who may not be able to work some or all of their hours as a result of COVID-19, after flexible or alternate arrangements have been considered.

As more government and private sector services are restored, the public service is also moving in this direction. This is consistent with what is happening more broadly across the country, and takes into account the re-opening of schools, daycares and other important social infrastructure.

The re-opening of these types of services has led to a steady decline in the use of ‘Other Leave With Pay (699)’ and the Treasury Board Secretariat (TBS) continues to consult with bargaining agents and other departmental stakeholders on the use of this leave going forward.

TBS also continues to work with departments and agencies to collect and aggregate workforce data and has now received data representing approximately 95% of the public service. Data up to August 2, 2020 shows that from the peak hours reported the week of April 5, 2020, the use of this leave dropped by approximately 92%.

On July 24, 2020, the Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO) published the report “Public Service use of paid leave for reasons related to COVID-19’. The report is an analysis of the financial impact of the pandemic on Canada’s federal public service from March to the end of May 2020. The PBO issued an updated costing report on August 24, 2020 based on data provided by TBS covering the period from March to the end of June 2020. Going forward, TBS will be providing the latest data available to the PBO on a regular basis.

• Since March 2020, the government has had in place exceptional leave provisions to support and provide flexibility to managers and employees in managing the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.
• That includes paid leave for employees who are diagnosed with COVID-19 or experiencing symptoms; are at high-risk or living with someone at high-risk of contracting COVID-19; who have no alternative options for childcare and where flexible work arrangements are not possible; or who are unable to access their IT network.
• Since mid-March, approximately a third of the public service requested leave code 699 for various durations. Overall use of this leave has and continues to steadily decline as services are restored.