Students left in lurch as summer jobs disappear

Young Canadians scramble to pay for essentials amid economic fallout

Like countless students across the country, Brandon Amyot’s summer work plans have been cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The incoming third-year political science student at Lakehead University in Orillia, who typically spends summers working in the non-profit sector, is facing a summer of unemployment and wondering where the money for rent and groceries will come from as the economy slowly emerges from a government mandated lockdown.

Amyot, who prefers to use gender-neutral pronouns, has exhausted most of the resources accessible to them and anticipates leaning on local food pantries to get by.

The economic fallout from the coronavirus has cut off scores of young Canadians from summer jobs and internships, which usually help them bridge gaps between tuition payments. And up until April 22, when Ottawa introduced the Canada Emergency Student Benefit (CESB), students like Amyot were left uncovered by existing aid programs — namely the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB), which requires applicants to have made at least $5,000 in 2019, an impossible threshold for most studying full-time.

CESB offers students who aren’t eligible for CERB $1,250 per month (or $1,750 per month for those with dependents or disabilities) between May and August. It’s part of a $9-billion aid package for postsecondary students and recent graduates that also includes wage subsidies for employers with Canada Summer Jobs, enhanced and extended research grants, and increased weekly student loan payments. The sum of a summer’s CESB cheques comes out to be more than what Amyot would typically make at a non-profit job earning minimum wage, though applications for CESB won’t open until May 15. Critics say the funding is coming too late, as nearly two months of lockdown without aid has left students scrambling to make ends meet.

“I have applied for some work, mostly essential work in grocery stores and things like that,” Amyot says. “I haven’t heard back; the few that I did hear back from had filled the positions at the time … And I am at the point where I’m going to run out of groceries in a few days.” Amyot feels lucky to qualify for CESB at all, as large sectors of students are not eligible for the program, including international students. Claudia Rupnik, incoming fourth-year student at Queen’s University and news editor of the Queen’s Journal, says international students at the school are “feeling very much like they have fallen through the cracks.”

Rupnik also notes that while the CESB offers enough to cover basic needs, it’s far lower than what most students say they’d earn through a paid internship.

In the meantime, Queen’s University has released $2 million in bursary funding for students having trouble paying their immediate bills, with a fraction dedicated specifically to international graduate students.

Other schools and students’ societies across the country are offering similar emergency scholarships for those slipping through the cracks of federal aid, including Brock University, the University of Toronto, the University of Victoria, and MacEwan University, among others.