Masse calls on Ottawa to offer CERB amnesty for vulnerable recipients
Low-income Canadians are terrified at the prospect of having to repay thousands of dollars from a pandemic-related federal emergency benefit, according to local MP Brian Masse (NDP — Windsor West).
Masse, along with MPP Lisa Gretzky (NDP — Windsor West) and staff with Legal Assistance of Windsor (LAW) gathered at Charles Clark Square Friday, imploring the federal government to offer struggling individuals and families amnesty from a call to repay the Canadian Emergency Response Benefit some received erroneously during the COVID -19 pandemic in 2020.
The federal government has determined hundreds of thousands of Canadians received the support benefit despite being ineligible. The government sent out “education letters” in December to 441,000 people, alerting them that repayment may be required.
Laura Stairs, a local legal assistance lawyer, said she hears the desperation in the voices of clients calling about that possibility.
“Absolutely, my biggest concern is the anxiety everyone is facing,” Stairs told the Star. “And we're coming on a year now with this anxiety.
“They applied believing they were eligible, and the government made it seem like they wanted to help. It was a desperate time and people were seeking any relief they could find.”
Masse and others say the government messaging around CERB eligibility was unclear and that demanding the vulnerable repay that financial support now “will increase the helplessness of those already struggling financially.”
“The Liberal government should never have asked Canadians who did nothing wrong to repay the CERB,” Masse said.
“By doing so, the government has placed families in a stressful situation.
“Low-income individuals and families who were already struggling through the pandemic saw CERB as a lifeline during an unprecedented crisis. Making them repay the CERB after they applied in good faith, with unclear criteria from the government, is unfair and detrimental to the mental health of a large part of our vulnerable population in Windsor Essex.”
Masse, Gretzky and Legal Assistance Windsor said their offices have all received calls from distraught citizens but it's unclear how many people in the Windsor-essex region are affected.
Approximately 75,000 people from the region applied for the first round of benefits when CERB launched last March, said Stairs.
“But we have no idea how many people were ineligible,” she said.
Caseworkers for Ontario Works and Ontario Disability Support Program were initially instructing clients to apply for CERB only to find out later that they weren't eligible.
For her clients, Stairs said the government money is not just sitting around in a bank account.
“These are clients who were already in fraught financial situations,” she said.
“They used it to pay rent, to buy food or to pay off debt to money lenders.”
The minimum CERB payment was $2,000. Some Canadians received $2,000 each month from March through September of last year.
“The pandemic has made the struggle with poverty for many Canadians, from persons living with disabilities, those receiving social assistance and low-income seniors, even more difficult,” Gretzky said.
“The need for support from both the provincial and federal governments was essential for basic survival with all the additional costs and to protect people's health and safety. Now, the lack of co-ordination and governmental misinformation has created real financial difficulties for the most vulnerable in our community. “
Masse and the others want the federal Liberal government to implement CERB repayment amnesty for individuals whose income for 2020 is $30,000 or less; two-person families whose total income is $45,000 or less; three-person families whose total income is $50,000 or less; and for larger families as defined by Statistics Canada's census family low-income measure.