CERB benefits to be extended eight weeks: PM

KEY COVID-19 BENEFIT TO BE EXTENDED WITH WORK-RELATED REQUIREMENTS

The federal government will provide eight extra weeks of benefits for people whose jobs or earnings have vanished because of the COVID-19 pandemic, but only if they look for work and take jobs when it’s reasonable to do so.

The Canada Emergency Response Benefit will continue to pay out $500 a week, but now for up to 24 weeks instead of 16 for people who lost their jobs or saw their hours slashed due to the pandemic.

The first cohort of applicants who signed up in April are set to max out their payment periods in early July, with worries some won’t have jobs to go back to and others unable to work because their health is precarious.

“Even as our economy is reopening, there are many, many more people out of work (or) willing to work than there are jobs available and that will be the story for the coming weeks as well,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in announcing the extension.

He added that the government will look at international best practices to determine what further changes will be needed.

The CERB has paid out $43.51 billion to 8.41 million people as of June 4, a takeup that forced an increase in its budget to $60 billion from $35 billion just a few weeks ago.

At its height, the CERB paid out $17 billion a month when eight million people were on it, but numbers have declined as 1.2 million recipients returned to work or went back on payrolls with help from the federal wage-subsidy program.

The heavy spending from the federal government, along with unprecedented measures from Canada’s central bank, have helped stabilize the economy and should support a recovery, Canada’s new top central banker told the Commons finance committee later in the day.

“We can’t change the fact that the pandemic has resulted in a very severe recession, the most severe in our lifetimes. The best we can do is do everything we can so the bounce-back” takes off, Bank of Canada governor Tiff Macklem said.

“What we really want to avoid is a non-recovery. That will create huge problems and that’s why these measures are so important.”

Going forward, the wording of the declaration recipients must make to get CERB payments will include language that applicants are actively looking for work and will take a job offer when their circumstances permit it, similar to the requirements for employment insurance benefits.

Employment Minister Carla Qualtrough said workers with child- or elder-care responsibilities, or those with COVID-19 symptoms, may be unable to work and could keep their CERB access.

“We can’t impose an obligation on somebody to take a job,” Qualtrough said, “but we are encouraging and saying that through the attestation, that people actively seek work and take it when it is reasonable in their circumstances to do so.”

Hassan Yussuff, president of the Canadian Labour Congress, warned the language may yet be problematic because job prospects are minimal.