Liberals planning to extend CERB program

More than eight million Canadians will max out benefits in coming weeks

OTTAWA— The Liberals are putting together a plan to extend one of the key COVID-19 benefits ahead of a parliamentary showdown on Wednesday.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Monday he’ll detail this week how the Canada Emergency Response Benefit might be extended as millions of Canadians have almost maxed out how much they can claim.

“In the last few weeks, things have started to look up for a lot of people but that said, we also know that far too many Canadian are still struggling,” Trudeau said Monday during his daily press conference.

“If you’re having troubles finding a job you shouldn’t also be worrying about whether you’ll hit the limit of your CERB benefits. So right now we’re working on a solution to extend the benefit for people who can’t return to work yet.”

Upward of 8.4 million Canadians have applied for the $2,000per-month benefit, according to the most recently available data.

But the program as currently structured only allows people to claim that support for 16 weeks.

The New Democrats said Monday that in the next couple of weeks, that means two million people will max out their benefits. A further six million will hit the ceiling a few weeks later.

If there’s no plan to help them, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh said Monday, his party won’t back a spending bill due in the Commons on Wednesday.

That day, MPs are to debate the supplementary estimates, which outline about $87 billion in spending. Parliament has already signed off on the vast majority of those funds, but there is also $6 billion in new spending which must be approved in a vote.

Any vote on new government spending can be considered a confidence motion, so in theory the opposition parties could bring down the government if they refuse to support it.

The NDP want a plan to extend CERB in place, Singh said Monday.

“Right now that is a first and foremost step that needs to happen,” he said.

Singh said his aim, however, is not to topple the government but help Canadians. “We’re flexible with the response from the government, but we’re firm on the fact that people need a concrete plan about how they will get help,” he said. Demand for the CERB has surpassed expectations, pushing its budget to $60 billion from $35 billion.

At the same time, however, many have come off the CERB and returned to work with employers taking advantage of a federal wage subsidy program that sees the government cover up to 75 per cent of wages.

The two programs act in concert with each other, Trudeau said Monday as he urged companies to hire people back using the subsidy.

“The CERB was designed to keep everyone at home and allow us to get through the initial wave of this pandemic. Now as we moved into the recovery phase we’re seeing more and more companies take on the wage subsidy, which is a good thing,” he said.