I was fortunate to have the opportunity to participate in a panel discussion on CBC’s show “On the Money” last night. The panel discussion was prompted by an article posted by CBC news entitled “Care of aging parents costs Canadians an estimated $33B annually.”
The essence of the article was that Canada’s aging population is causing adult children to incur a significant burden, not only in terms of the outlay of money for caregiving costs but, perhaps more significantly, arising from time away from work required to care for their parents.
The Ontario Legislature has recognized the need to address this issue.
Section 49.1(2) of the Employment Standards Act, contains a section on Family Caregiver Leave, which permits employees to take an unpaid leave of absence of up to eight weeks in order to provide care or support to a sick family member.
Pursuant to the statute, an employee would be entitled to an unpaid leave of absence to provide “care or support” to the following family members/individuals who have a “serious medical condition”, including:
- The employee’s spouse.
- A parent, step-parent or foster parent of the employee.
- A child, step-child or foster child of the employee or the employee’s spouse.
- Any individual prescribed as a family member for the purpose of this section.
Although it would appear that there is some relief afforded by the Legislature when an aging parent needs assistance, the fact of the matter is that long-term needs cannot be met except by careful estate planning and consideration of financial resources. It might be worth adding that the family caregiver leave provisions appear to be more directed to short-term illnesses rather than the progressive decline associated with dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.
Thanks for reading,