Legault resists federally mandated 10 days sick leave, calls it a “vacation”

When asked about the federal government’s pledge to give $14-billion to the provinces for the Safe Restart Agreement, Quebec Premier François Legault said he wants to accept the aid for the province, but without conditions such as the imposition on businesses of what he referred to as 10 “vacation” days (they’re actually sick leave) per employee.

Along with PPE for hospitals and businesses, among other things, the Safe Restart money for the provinces is supposed to cover up to 10 days of paid sick leave for employees, so they don’t feel like they need to come into work if they have symptoms of COVID-19.

Legault said that he would use Quebec’s share of the $14-billion — which he also said should be proportionate with the province’s COVID-19 expenditures as opposed to the 23 per cent Quebec would be given based on population — on building and renovating CHSLDs, something the province already pledged to do as part of accelerated infrastructure projects earlier this week.

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