Airdrie-Banff, MP Blake Richards was pleased to see recommendations come forth regarding Motion 110, however, a timing delay could risk the action he was hoping to see. 

First brought forth in 2017, the intention behind Motion 110 was to study and look for ways to improve the level of support for grieving parents who have lost an infant child through stillbirth, Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), or other complications, and suggest recommendations to the government.

While Richards is happy the commitee's report is complete, he says the push is on. "We finally got a report back from the committee that was set out to study the issue, and we were supposed to have the report by the 8th of December, and I think it was the 8th of February before we got the report, so about two months late...but better late than never. In this scenario, we are getting very close to the time where time is running out for action to be taken on this. But at this point, we still have just enough of a window that if things are acted on quickly, we can still get this problem addressed and fixed before the next election, and that is really what the goal has been."

Among the Committee Recommendations is a proposed change to the Employment Insurance Program that would accommodate a bereavement leave that would provide income support for 12 to 15 weeks for parents grieving the loss of an infant child. "This will allow for parents to have a chance to properly go through the grieving process and take out the coldheartedness we are seeing from bureaucracy and forcing them to treat these families with far more compassion and support."

Richards gave thanks to all those who have helped in the process thus far but says he now needs the support to get the government to act on the recommendations, which is the key step. 

For the most part, Richards was fairly satisfied recommendations. However, he would have liked to have seen the language firmed up. "It was a little softer in terms of the recommendations that I would have liked, I would have liked them to be a little more concrete. A lot of the recommendations were 'sort of study this' or 'consider doing this', where I would have liked to have seen a recommendation that said 'should do this'."

While a big step was getting the support of the opposition, now the biggest leap is getting this put into legislation. "I think anything anyone can do to give encouragement and put a little pressure on, especially Liberal MPs.  Even though we got support from them, do they have the will actually to do this?!"

Besides a petition being circulated asking the government to move this along quickly, Richards has a couple of other suggestions. "If people also want to write letters or make phone calls to Liberal MPs that is the best thing they can do. All of the information on how people can do this is on my website at blakerichards.ca and then you click on Motion 110."

As far as timing goes, MP Richards, can't stress how tight the timeline is. "We're really close to it. That December 8th date was picked with the view that that would be the amount of time needed to pass legislation, so now we are two months behind that now. But if the government were to bring forward legislation in the next few weeks, they could probably still get it done, or the other option they have would be to put this in their budget which might be our best hope at this point. It can still be done, but it has to happen quickly."

Richards is still optimistic that this will come to fruition for families but says if not, he hopes voters remember as they head to the polls. "I am committed to seeing this through 100%, and whatever the outcome of the election is, locally or nationally, if we haven't been able to convince this government to do this prior, I will be on this until it's done...no matter what it takes."