Ontario aims to protect civilian jobs of reservists while healing from physical or mental trauma

by JAFO Sun 19 Mar 2023, 11:11 am

Ontario aims to protect civilian jobs of reservists while healing from physical or mental trauma

Antonella Artuso
Published Mar 17, 2023

Ontario will introduce legislation that would protect the civilian jobs of military reservists who need time to recover from physical or mental trauma after deployment, Labour Minister Monte McNaughton says.

If passed, the bill would also offer job-protected leave for reservists responding to domestic emergencies.

“Under the Employment Standards today, military reservists don’t have this protection,” McNaughton said Thursday. “Of the 40,000 Canadian soldiers and reservists deployed in Afghanistan, nearly one in seven developed a mental health injury attributed to the mission, so this is really about just common sense changes to protect our Canadian heroes.”

The bill would build on legislation brought in last March by McNaughton that guaranteed military reservists could return to jobs after being deployed on a mission or for training.

The new legislation as proposed would assure military reservists responding to domestic emergencies that they have a job when they come back even if they were in a new position, the Minister said.

“They step up to provide support during search and rescue operations, natural disasters, ice storms, wild fires in Northern Ontario and other major events,” McNaughton said. “So again, this will ensure that their jobs are protected when they’re away serving all of us.”

“And if they come home with physical or mental health injuries, they can take time to recover and then have a job to return to,” he added.

Earlier this week, McNaughton proposed changes to construction sites that would require a women-only and more washrooms, while setting standards for cleaner washrooms.

McNaughton said he has heard about these issues as he has met with workers throughout the province.

“All of these things are small changes but have a huge impact to those workers and their families, a real positive impact,” he said. “Everything that we’re introducing is about attracting and retaining workers and to improve lives of workers across the province.

“I want to make Ontario the number one place to live, work and raise a family,” he said.

McNaughton said he expects to introduce the new legislation in the coming days.

aartuso@postmedia.com

Toronto Sun