After a productive meeting between National President David Neufeld and Secretary of State for Labour, Member of Parliament John Zerucelli in late August, key USJE representatives had the opportunity to sit down with senior representatives from the policy team overseeing the administration of the Government Employees Compensation Act (GECA) on September 25th 2025.
Mr. Zerucelli strongly encouraged USJE to reconnect with the federal GECA policy team in order to renew the dialogue about the value of USJE’s proposed changes to this crucial federal legislation. In USJE’S meeting between National President Neufeld and Secretary of State Mr. Zerucelli, Mr. Zerucelli demonstrated a quick understanding of the disparity that exists between certain categories of provincial employees versus federal employees n regards to their ability to access Workers’ Compensation.
USJE was highly encouraged by the quality of the dialogue with Mr. Zerucelli, and has extended an invitation for him to speak at the upcoming World Mental Health Day on Wednesday, October 8th alongside representatives from other political parties.
Key items Discussed with the GECA Policy Team
For the purposes of USJE’s meeting with the senior policy team overseeing GECA on September 25th, National President David Neufeld was joined by Regional Vice Presidents Kirsty Havard and Jeff Sandelli from USJE’s Health and Safety Advisory Committee. The focus of the discussion was the implementation of key legislative changes proposed by USJE to the federal Government Employees Compensation Act (GECA).
The federal Government Employees Compensation Act (GECA) is a piece of legislation that has not fundamentally changed since its establishment 50 years ago. Effectively, GECA provides the legislative and funding mechanism by which federal public service employees are covered under provincial and territorial Workers’ Compensation boards. It is the provincial and territorial Compensation boards that exclusively determine the criteria, benefits and other supports offered to individuals who qualify Workers’ Compensation.
During the meeting, USJE representatives highlighted that:
- Presumptive injury legislation in the provinces and territories frequently leaves out non-first responders who work in public safety, including thousands of federal USJE employees who are susceptible to occupational stress injuries owing to their efforts to keep Canadians safe from coast to coast to coast.
- GECA representatives in our meeting were interested to learn that while provincially employed correctional probation officers in Ontario are recognized by provincial presumptive injury legislation, federally employed parole officers who are working in Ontario are not recognized by the same provincial legislation. This creates an unacceptable disparity in presumptive injury presumptive injury coverage in this province alone. This is only one example of a disparity that exists in coverage across the country.
- There is no consistency across the country when it comes to Workers’ Compensation coverage for mental health injuries. Even in jurisdictions that have adopted more permissive Workers’ Compensation criteria that is regarded as inclusive of mental health injuries, federal public safety personnel (including USJE members) are regularly denied coverage for occupational health injuries.
- Despite regular, often long-term exposure to traumatic incidents, materials, victims and criminalized persons, many USJE members, regardless of where they live in the country, are frequently not successful in obtaining Workers’ Compensation after they incur a mental health injury.
- Among those who choose to appeal a claim that is denied (which is a daunting prospect), many do not succeed during this process. This means that, ultimately, there may be no choice but to continue to report to work while suffering a psychological injury, and may ultimately leave the workplace on long term disability if they have no opportunity to get well.
- Major federal employers, like the federal Correctional Service of Canada, often do not support employees who are seeking to qualify for Workers’ Compensation and will defend against the employee’s claim.
- While major agencies like the Correctional Service of Canada have undertaken mental health programs to support employees, they do not explicitly highlight a lack of access to presumptive injury claims in the various provinces and territories where their employees work.
- USJE has appealed to all federal public safety agencies to join us in advocating for vastly improved presumptive injury coverage for USJE members.
Throughout this discussion, senior policy officials with GECA demonstrated a strong appetite to learn more about the experience of USJE’s members, particularly in regards to the lack of access experienced by federal public safety personnel, and the absence of coverage being offered by many different provinces and territories.
USJE advised that we are actively engaging elected officials in the new Parliament, particularly members of the Carney government, and representatives of several opposition parties who have long demonstrated a keen interest in supporting the changes to the federal legislation that USJE is requesting.
If USJE’s proposed changes to GECA were made, it would broaden the entitlement among federal public safety personnel to presumptive injury claims for work-related psychological injuries. A definition of federal public safety personnel – who are recognized to have an increased vulnerability to occupational stress injuries and would be entitled to presumptive injury coverage – would be entrenched in the federal legislation.
A Private Member’s Bill (Bill C-357) in support of USJE’s proposed changes to GECA was introduced this September, 2023 by MP Peter Julian. Subsequent to the federal election in April, this Bill died on the order paper, and would need to be re-introduced by another MP.
USJE’s proposed changes to the federal Government Employees Compensation Act also respond to key recommendations from the House of Commons Public Safety study in 2016: entitled Healthy Minds, Safe Communities: Supporting our Public Safety Officers through a National Strategy for Operational Stress Injuries.