Human Resources Minister Diane Finley introduced new legislation Tuesday that will extend special Employment Insurance benefits, including maternity and compassionate-care benefits, to the self-employed.

Finley said the self-employed will also be eligible for parental and sickness benefits.

"Our government knows that self-employed Canadians should not have to choose between their family and their business responsibilities," Finley said in a statement.

"Extending access to these benefits is the fair and right thing to do. It is good family policy, and it represents one of the most significant enhancements to the EI program in the last decade."

Under the legislation, called the Fairness for the Self-Employed Act, the self-employed would be eligible to voluntarily opt into the EI program to receive benefits that, until now, had only been available to salaried workers.

The proposals are another move by the Conservatives to reform the EI system, a campaign that was ramped up when the economic crisis hit one year ago and as the opposition parties' cries for reform grew louder.

Both the Liberals and the NDP have hammered the Conservatives over EI, and extending benefits to the self-employed was one of their key demands.

Earlier this year, Finley introduced measures to extend benefits by five weeks, boost funding for skills training by $500 million, and guidelines for streamlining service.

The government also froze EI premiums for 2010 at 2009 levels.

While Quebec already has a maternity-benefits program for the self-employed, participation is mandatory and premiums are higher.

The new federal government program would be voluntary and members would pay the same EI premiums as salaried workers.

The new bill includes the following provisions:

• Maternity benefits for up to 15 weeks for mothers, starting up to eight weeks before the baby's due date.
• Parental benefits of up to 35 weeks for biological or adoptive parents while they care for a newborn or newly adopted child, to be taken by either parent or shared.
• Sickness benefits of up to 15 weeks for those who can't work due to sickness, injury or quarantine.
• Compassionate-care benefits of up to six weeks for those who are caring for a gravely ill family member at risk of death.

"The self-employed have had little or no income protection to cope with major life events, such as giving birth, caring for a newborn or newly adopted child, being sick or injured, or caring for a gravely ill family member," Finley said.

"This government is now providing these Canadians with greater peace of mind with respect to their future financial security."

The new legislation would apply to a growing demographic in Canada. According to the last census, the number of self-employed women in Canada grew by 8.4 per cent between 2001 and 2006, and by 234 per cent between 1981 and 2006.

With files from The Canadian Press