NO ONE SHOULD HAVE TO DECIDE BETWEEN HEALTH, PAYING BILLS
Charles Benn works two parttime jobs bartending to support himself and pay his tuition at the University of Windsor.
Or he did, until Phog Lounge and Wolfhead Distillery had to lay him off because of the pandemic.
He just spent the rest of his savings from last summer on rent for March. He tried calling to apply for employment insurance, but the line was busy. He tried to apply online, but the website stated it was experiencing high volume.
His EI will be calculated based on his wage, $12.20 an hour, not what he receives in tips, which doubles his income. He’ll get about 55 per cent of his wage. It’s not much. And he’ll likely wait weeks to get it.
Rent for April? He’s hoping the building manager will be reasonable.
“It puts me in a big bind,” he said of being laid off suddenly and likely indefinitely.
On the plus side, he said, “I filled up today for 77 cents a litre.”
Danielle Nowak was working 30 to 35 hours a week as a server at Cramdon’s Tap and Eatery. Now she’s working four hours, helping with takeout orders.
Takeout orders are two per cent of Cramdon’s business. She and 29 other part-time staff might not have jobs at all next week if the revenue isn’t worth the cost.
Her EI, too, will be based on her $12.20 an hour wage, not her tips.
If her babysitter has to quit, it won’t matter how many hours she gets at work. She’ll have to stay home with her two children, ages four and six.
Nowak’s husband owns a landscaping business. Winter is slow, and this spring, when business normally increases, many people won’t have much money to spend because they’ll be laid off, too.
The couple is looking into deferring their mortgage payments and stopping contributions to their children’s education funds.
The novel coronavirus isn’t the only thing spreading exponentially. So is fear for livelihoods.
And just like some people are more vulnerable to the pathogen, some are more vulnerable to its unprecedented economic hit.
The federal government’s unparalleled $27 billion in emergency benefits for people and businesses, announced by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Wednesday along with $55 billion in tax deferrals, will be critical.
There are myriad benefits, some new and some topped up. But the key is there is money for those who lose their jobs or must take time off because they become ill, are quarantined, are caring for those who are ill or caring for children because schools and daycare centres are closed.
They’re people who might not traditionally get EI or sick pay — the self-employed, part-time and seasonal workers, and those in the gig economy.
“No matter where you live, what you do, who you are, you will get the support you need,” Trudeau vowed as he unfurled the massive safety net.
It’s what people need to hear. The question is, how quickly can the government deliver it?
People won’t be able to apply for some new benefits, which require recalling Parliament to pass new legislation, until April, though applicants can backdate their claims to March 13. Then the bureaucracy will begin the seismic job of processing the applications.
It takes 19 days on average to receive EI. Minimal documents will be required for some new benefits, just an attestation, which will enable the government to process them faster.
Still, acknowledged Irek Kusmierczyk, Liberal MP for Windsor-tecumseh, who has been flooded with calls and emails, “it’s an unprecedented number of claimants. The challenge we’re going to have is the system. We will be redeploying resources to get as many people as possible to process these. This is really going to be a challenge.”
Just look at Colorado. A 1,600 per cent surge in applications for unemployment benefits caused the labour department website to crash.
All of this will be especially critical in Windsor and Essex County, which Kusmierczyk called “ground zero.” We don’t have a single case of COVID-19 yet, but our economy is being slammed. The Detroit Three automakers are temporarily closing their North American plants, food producers don’t know if they can get enough migrant labour for the new growing season, the border is closed to all but necessary traffic, the casino is closed.
“This is something we’re dealing with in this community across the board,” said Kusmierczyk, parliamentary secretary to Employment Minister Carla Qualtrough.
The real key is that Trudeau called this the “first phase.” This pandemic likely hasn’t peaked yet. No one knows what’s going to happen.
“As this unfolds, the government is prepared to respond,” said Kusmierczyk.
Because no one should have to decide between their health and paying their bills.