Province bracing for end of CERB
Government hoping provincial job program will help women, youth build careers in areas seeing workers shortages
P.E.I.’s minister of economic growth says he is preparing for the end of CERB.
The Federal Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) was a core component of economic relief during the worst months of the COVID-19 pandemic. The federal program provided a bi-weekly payment to workers hit by pandemic-related job losses.
But while many workers have transitioned to other programs, such as Employment Insurance or the Canada Recovery Benefit, Matthew MacKay, minister of economic growth, tourism and culture, says his department is bracing for March, when he expects the first round of CERB payments to come to an end.
"We've got to be ready. There's going to be a time when that money is going to be shut off. And this is where, (in) our first round, we're expecting in March to have people in panic mode," MacKay told the standing committee on education and economic growth on Tuesday.
MacKay, along with his deputy minister, Erin McGrath-Gaudet, spoke before the committee on the subject of P.E.I.’s economic recovery.
MacKay told the committee his department has partnered with 11 organizations, including both business industry groups and non-profit organizations, to help determine how many Islanders will face hardship as of March due to CERB payments coming to an end. He said the goal is to work with these organizations to develop reskilling and career planning for Islanders whose employment remains precarious.
The Island is seeing a paradox of continued unemployment due to the pandemic alongside a shortage of skilled workers in sectors like the trades and construction. While sectors like aerospace and tourism have taken a hit due to the pandemic, other sectors like construction have fared better.
Since March, the biggest numbers of job losses seen in P.E.I. due to the pandemic were concentrated among women and Islanders below the age of 25. Men aged 25 and over have effectively seen employment numbers recover to pre-pandemic levels.
MacKay and McGrathGaudet said one program that could help is called the Workforce Integration Fund. The program received about
$4 million in funding from the federal government and was intended to allow career planning and retraining to populations most severely impacted by pandemic-related job losses.
McGrath-Gaudet said the Workforce Integration Fund has involved partnerships with for-profit businesses, industry groups and non-profits to provide employment supports to women, youth and Black, Indigenous, People of Colour (BIPOC) community members. Over 30 organizations applied for the funding; eight have been approved.
“We had designed this to be quite flexible because we wanted to be able to work with our community partners,” McGrath-Gaudet said.
MacKay and McGrathGaudet faced some criticism from Opposition Green MLAs for not requiring more strict targeting in the eligibility criteria for the fund.
“I don’t see any criteria that would suggest I have to hire women or I have to work with the BIPOC community,” said Green MLA Lynne Lund.
McGrath-Gaudet said partners have submitted plans to provide job skills to underrepresented groups, such as women or Aboriginal Islanders.
“We don’t want to exclude people necessarily, but that was the priority of the fund – to target those populations as best we can,” McGrathGaudet said.
Liberal MLA Robert Henderson said he believed many programs from MacKay’s department were positive.
But he said there is a gap in programs for lowincome Islanders, who often face specific stresses in their lives.
“We are not dealing with the drama in their lives – that tends to happen or tends to be a bit more frequent with people with lower income,” Henderson said.
MacKay agreed with Henderson and stressed the need for programs that also teach life skills, which can include anything from budgeting to doing laundry.
McGrath-Gaudet did not provide a long-term vision for P.E.I.’s recovery postCOVID.
A report from the Premier’s Economic Growth and Recovery Council is “close to being final”, she said.