Paid sick leave deal reached between NDP and Liberals, Singh says

Federal NDP leader Jagmeet Singh says he’s reached a deal with the Liberal party to incorporate national paid sick leave into the country’s pandemic recovery plan.

The deal likely means Canada can avoid a fall federal election.

“Today marks the first step in achieving the first-ever, in the history of our country, federal paid sick leave for Canadian workers,” Singh said at a Friday news conference.

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Singh previously said he wouldn’t support the Liberal throne speech unless the governing party included paid sick leave.

If the House of Commons voted against approving the throne speech, which was a possibility given a lack of support from the Conservatives, it could have triggered an autumn election in the middle of the pandemic.

Singh has been advocated for enhancements to federal pandemic aid available to Canadians as the Canada Emergency Response Benefit transitions over to a revamped Employment Insurance plan this week.

The Liberals wanted to cut help for people relying on CERB by $400,

We fought back and got them to reverse their cut.

When we convinced them to make sick days available, they made them too hard to get,

We fought back. Now millions of people won’t be forced to go to work sick. pic.twitter.com/2B8cJEuu3W

— Jagmeet Singh (@theJagmeetSingh) September 26, 2020