Ontario Supporting Women and Families in the Trades

Proposals would create new parental leave to include adoption and surrogacy, create job-protected leave for serious illnesses and require properly fitting PPE for women in all trades sectors

ETOBICOKE — The Ontario government will soon introduce legislation that, if passed, will support families and help more women enter and remain in the skilled trades by creating a new job-protected parental leave for adoptive parents and parents through surrogacy. The government would also create a new 27-week job-protected leave for workers with serious illnesses and support women in the trades by requiring all sectors to have properly fitting personal protective clothing and equipment (PPE) for women.

“Our government has a clear mission: ensure Ontario continues to be the very best place to live, work, and raise a family,” said David Piccini, Minister of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development. “That means making sure Ontarians never have to choose between being a worker or a parent, and that if a worker gets sick with a critical illness they can take the time to recover without worrying about their job. We’re also promoting and protecting tradeswomen as an essential part of our workforce in every sector: we see you, we value you, and we can’t build Ontario’s future without you.”

The province’s upcoming legislation will propose a new 16-week job-protected leave under the Employment Standards Act for adoptive parents and parents through surrogacy, to ensure they have adequate time to meet the demands of the adoption or surrogacy process, attach and welcome their child into their new home. This would also align with upcoming federal changes to create employment insurance (EI) benefits for adoption.

The government also intends to propose a new 27-week long-term illness leave for employees unable to work due to a serious medical condition as defined by a medical practitioner, such as cancer, multiple sclerosis or Crohn’s. If passed, this would be one of the longest provincial leaves in Canada and would ensure workers with a serious medical condition have the time away from work they need to get treatment and recover, without risking their jobs.

To bring more women into the trades and grow Ontario’s trades workforce, the government will also propose expanding the explicit requirement for properly fitting PPE for women in the construction sector that was included in the Working for Workers Act, 2023 to include all sectors.

The government is also ensuring workers have access to clean washrooms by proposing specific requirements on employers that will increase accountability and transparency with washroom cleaning records. This would build on the new duties for employers and constructors related to clean washrooms that were passed under the Working for Workers Five Act.

These changes are part of a larger proposed package that will expand on the ground-breaking actions introduced in five previous Working for Workers packages since 2021, which will be unveiled in the coming weeks, to grow Ontario’s workforce, keep costs down for workers and businesses, and support the wellbeing of workers and their families. These proposed changes are another way the government is building a brighter future for all Ontarians and ensuring our province remains the best place to live, work and raise a family.

Quick Facts

In 2023, 374,600 women were employed in a skilled trades-related occupation in Ontario, representing 29 per cent of the 1.3 million Ontarians who were employed in a skilled-trades related occupation.
According to recent research published by the Canadian Standards Association, 50 per cent of women surveyed noted their PPE does not fit properly, 43 per cent said it is uncomfortable to wear and 35 per cent said the selection of women-specific PPE is inadequate.
Half of respondents to the Ontario Building and Construction Tradeswomen 2022 survey cited better washroom facilities as something needed to make construction more appealing to women.
Ontario has introduced five Working for Workers Acts since 2021, with groundbreaking measures which are already helping millions of people. The province will continue to expand its initiatives to support workers.
The Ontario government is investing $150 million over two years to expand the Ontario Fertility Program to cut waitlists and triple the number of families connecting to government-funded fertility services in hospital and community clinic settings.