Long-haul legislation could extend job protections

Albertans struggling to find childcare due to pandemic-related daycare and school closures won’t have to worry about losing their jobs, if a newly proposed bill passes.

On Thursday, the Alberta government proposed legislation to allow pandemic response orders to continue without a public health emergency declaration.

Alberta ended its public health emergency on June 15. Some rules the government put in place during the pandemic to protect workers, help businesses and promote health and safety are set to expire on Aug. 14 – including allowing workers to take unpaid leave for at least another year without the fear of being fired to care for sick loved ones or children whose schools or daycares have closed.

The newly proposed Bill 24 aims to extend those rules beyond Aug. 14 and would amend 15 acts across seven ministries to allow some of the province's pandemic response efforts to continue and to introduce new measures.

“The COVID-19 virus will be with us for a while,” Alberta Health Minister Tyler Shandro said.

“Going forward, the proposed amendments will ensure that we have the tools that we need for the next phases of relaunch.”

One of the bill's highlights would allow employers to extend temporary COVID-related layoffs to 180 days, instead of the current 120 days.

Long-term healthcare workers would continue to be required to work in only one facility to help prevent the spread of the virus, instead of being able to work in multiple facilities.

Bill 24 would also allow Albertans to sign personal directives like wills and powers of attorney through real-time video conferencing.

The deadline for the government's annual report and annual infrastructure report would be modified from June 30 to Aug. 31.

The government is also proposing a new regulation authority that would be able to give the chief medical officer of health “the authority to act if and as required without an official state of public health emergency being declared,” Shandro said.

All of these rules would come to an end no later than Dec. 21, 2021, under a double sunset clause in the bill.