The Couillard government is proposing changes to the parental leave program, to allow parents to spread out the 52 weeks of maternity leave new mothers have over a period of two years.
Premier Philippe Couillard told a National Assembly news conference on Thursday the idea is to improve the balance between work and family for new parents — because that's what parents have been demanding.
"There's a big societal shift now," he says. "This question of quality of life...in my generation, work was everything. Work, work, work, work. To the extent that sometimes, you don't spend a lot of time with your family. Now the younger generation is telling us, 'we don't want to live like this.' Forget about this, that, whatever else you want to give me...I want time. I want oxygen."
The proposal would not cost the government any more, since it wouldn't actually increase parental leave benefits.
Employers would also have to approve plans by their workers to spread out their time off.