MPS PUSH BACK AGAINST HANDOUT

$9B student aid a ‘disincentive’ to look for work

Opposition parties pushed through changes Wednesday to a $9-billion aid package for students amid fears that generous federal benefits are encouraging people to stay home and not work.

Manitoba Premier Brian Pallister was the latest to voice concerns that some businesses emerging from lockdown are unable to find workers.

“We are fighting against a federal program that is actually paying people to stay out of the workforce right now. I don’t like the fact that that is real, but that is real. People are being paid to stay home,” he said on Wednesday during a press conference to announce some restrictions on businesses in his province would lift on Monday.

“Employers have told us, small businesses have told us, that they are fighting against a federal student program that is actually paying people to not work or look for work. This is also a disincentive.”

On Wednesday, opposition parties in the House of Commons gave unanimous consent to vote on legislation authorizing $9 billion in promised financial assistance for students facing bleak summer job prospects in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

But the Trudeau government made some changes to its plan to satisfy opposition parties.

The government agreed to implement unspecified new financial incentives and support measures to connect benefit recipients, particularly students, to available jobs, especially in the food and agrifood sectors. And it agreed to ensure that the student benefit and the broader Canada Emergency Response Benefit were offered in a manner that would encourage employment.

Those promises were aimed at satisfying complaints that the emergency benefits were encouraging people to stay home rather than work.

Conservative MP Erin O’Toole complained that the student aid package encouraged them to “stay home.”

And Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet said students should have basic income support but also an incentive to work — the more they work, the more they make.

Carla Qualtrough, the employment minister, said the government was working to ensure that “we do not disincentivize work.”

‘Quite frankly, students want to work, they want to contribute, they want to serve, they want to work in their communities, and we are doing whatever we can to make sure through the creation of the student benefit, but also through the creation of 116,000 extra jobs they have every opportunity to do so.”

The government increased the monthly benefit for students with dependents or disabilities to $2,000 from the initially proposed $1,750

For other students who are unable to find full-time jobs or unable to work due to the pandemic, a new Canada Emergency Student Benefit will provide $1,250 per month from May through August.

The package also includes a new grant of up to $5,000 for post-secondary students who volunteer in some aspect of the pandemic response, as well as expanded eligibility criteria for student loans and a doubling of non-repayable grants.