The Canadian Restoration Benefit CRB ended on October 23.
From now on, more than 1.5 million Canadians will be affected, of which 880,000 will immediately lose income support.
Since March 2020, the Trudeau government has introduced the CERB pandemic benefit, which pays $2,000 CAD per month. After September 27, 2020, the Trudeau government used CRB instead of CERB to continue to pay $2,000 CAD per month, and from July 2021, CRB shrank to $1200 CAD per month.
On October 21, the Trudeau federal government announced that it would replace crB with the Canadian Worker Blockade Benefit (CWLB), which is also $300 per week and $1,200 per month.
"Not qualified at all"
However, after reading the CWLB's blocked benefit application conditions, many people said: They are not eligible to receive it at all!
Employment Minister Carla Qualtrough explained that the new benefits will only be given to those affected by the full lockdown, not those affected by tightening restrictions on restaurant capacity.
In addition, the federal government emphasizes that individuals who lose income or employment due to refusal to comply with vaccine regulations will not be able to receive this benefit.
Currently, there are varying degrees of public health restrictions in Canadian provinces, but none of them have a public health blockade. On the contrary, due to the gradual reopening of vaccine certificates in various places, the unemployed are not eligible to apply for the "workers' blockade benefit".
That's tantamount to saying that welfare has come to a complete halt, said David Macdonald, senior economist at the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives: "With the current development of the epidemic, no more lockdown measures are expected.
According to CityNews, Peter Julian, a member of the Federal New Democratic Party, said: "There will be more homeless people across the country, and more families will struggle for their livelihoods." ”
Julian said: "The so-called lockdown benefit does not actually apply to any part of Canada, which means that 880,000 people have lost this benefit, and absolutely no one can claim the lockdown benefit."
Julian said: "This is a very cold and cruel decision by Trudeau. ”
In addition, the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy (CEWS) and the Canadian Emergency Rent Subsidy (CERS) have also been replaced by new measures.
According to a report by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, the change in government benefit programs could directly affect as many as 1.5 million people, most of whom will have no other source of income or support.
Of these, 880,000 workers will lose CRB eligibility and income reduction support; more than 641,000 workers will be at risk for the cessation of CERS and CEWS; and as many as 50,000 businesses will lose wage subsidies and rental subsidy benefits.
The secret of stopping CRBs
Press Canada obtained a copy of an internal brief under the Access to Information Act, showing that by the time the government abruptly announced the suspension of crb benefits, about 800,000 people who depended on the benefit had only 48 hours to adjust their financial arrangements.
An assessment by Employment and Social Development Canada found that by early June, of the 1.8 million crb recipients, 1.5 million, or 75 per cent, were consecutive or repeat recipients.
Some 627,000 of them have not stopped receiving crB benefits since the government issued them.
Since its launch in late September 2020, as of October 10, the CRB has paid more than $27 billion to nearly 2.2 million applicants, but the number of demand has steadily declined from a peak of 1.22 million in January this year.
By the time the Liberal government announced changes to its welfare program on Thursday, about 800,000 people who depended on those benefits had only 48 hours to adjust their finances.
The document also states that by early June, more than 600,000 recipients who had been paid in the first four months of the CRB's issuance were no longer eligible for benefits.
Experts reviewing the document believe the analysis shows that Canadians still need this benefit.
Do Canadians still need CRBs?
Jennifer Robson, an associate professor of political management at Carleton University in Ottawa, said the Liberal government's announcement did not indicate that it would provide retraining or job search services to help unemployed workers. Theoretically, recruitment support might help some types of employers hire more employees, but there's no indication here that it will help CRB recipients a lot in the short term.
Deena Ladd, executive director of the Toronto-based Workers' Action Center, tweeted Sunday asking the Liberals to reinstate CRB benefits. The tweet reads: "Canadian workers need CRBs to pay rent and keep their homes. Many workers can only find part-time jobs and don't have enough income to make ends meet, and the pandemic is not over.
CIBC chief economist Avery Shenfeld wrote in a weekend analysis that workers who receive wage subsidies or rely on CRB support "will join the ranks of job seekers," which will lead to high unemployment rates across the country.
However, the Canadian government says CRBs are no longer needed because the Canadian economy is performing better than it was a few months ago, including that the labour market has recovered the 3 million jobs lost at the start of the pandemic last year.
Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland also said Canadians no longer need wage subsidies because of her proposal to expand credit to companies that hire new workers.
Employment Minister Carla Qualtrough said the federal government's current focus on "incentive work" benefits and the Trudeau government's shift in support benefits from a more "passive" program to a "incentive work" program reflects Canada's success in fighting the pandemic.
What do you think about that?