Front Burner - In Brief: Who qualifies for the COVID-19 aid package?

Episode Date: March 25, 2020

Parliament has approved a $107-billion aid package to help Canadians struggling during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the prime minister has said people will be able to access those benefits within 10 days of applying. But who qualifies? And how long will this aid last? Meanwhile, stricter measures are being applied on those returning to the country, but how will they be enforced? CBC parliamentary reporter J.P. Tasker joins Jayme Poisson to talk about that, on this episode of Front Burner.

In the Dragon's Den, a simple pitch can lead to a life-changing connection. Watch new episodes of Dragon's Den free on CBC Gem. Brought to you in part by National Angel Capital Organization, empowering Canada's entrepreneurs through angel investment and industry connections. This is a CBC Podcast. Hi everybody, it's Jamie here. So we have two major things to get caught up on tonight. First, the federal government has now passed a $107 billion COVID-19 aid package. It's been expanded, so we will try and help you understand if you qualify for the benefits. We'll provide $2,000 a month for the next four months for workers who

lose their income as a result of COVID-19. And second, a mandatory quarantine order under threat of serious punishments for Canadians returning from abroad. This is FrontBurner in brief. All right, I've got JP Tasker with me from our Ottawa Bureau. Hi, JP. Hi, Jamie. So let's get right to it. Essentially, the government created today what they're calling the Canada Emergency Response Benefit, CERB, to give financial aid to Canadians. So what is this and who qualifies?

Yeah, I want to stress just how monumental this whole thing is. I mean, Finance Minister Bill Morneau was in the Senate today and he was saying what we're doing here is absolutely unprecedented. We're talking about $55 billion in payments from the federal government directly to Canadiansadians you know to really help them through this crisis as you know as our economy craters you know as a potential depression looms and quite literally millions of people will be out of work over the next little while uh and you know with economic and social life um ground to a halt ottawa is saying we're here to help we have the fiscal capacity to take action. So they've made this program quite generous. And it's available to basically anyone who is not

collecting any income right now, as we're all collectively dealing with COVID-19. So it's open to all workers with little or no requirements. But there are some important details the government stressed today that, you know, not everyone will be open to it. It's available to all wage earners, contract workers and self-employed people who don't normally qualify for employment insurance. But there is some guidance. If you're already receiving employment insurance, EI, you know, regular or sickness benefits as of today, you will continue to receive those EI benefits. So don so don't don't bother applying for this new benefit and if you've already applied in the last week for ei

don't reapply for this new benefit because they're working through that backlog you know a million people over the last week have already applied for ei they're already in the system they don't have to worry about trying to get online and get the cerERB payment. They're going to be processed as they're going along. I mean, it's a slow go because there has been so many people in that queue. They've worked through about 143,000 people to this point, but there will be many more coming online in the weeks ahead. So just so I can be clear here, the people who have already applied for EI, if they don't qualify for EI, are they just going to be folded into the CERB?

That's right. Exactly. If you're not accepted for EI, they'll roll you over into CERB as long as you meet the basic, basic requirements, which is you had to have earned $5,000 in 2019 or in the last 12 months. So you have to be over the age of 15 and you have to have earned over $5,000 in the last 12 months to be eligible for the CERB. Okay, I'm hoping we can hit just a few examples here because to me, and correct me if I'm wrong here, what this seems to boil down to is, look, if you do not qualify for EI, and some people do not qualify for EI because they weren't working enough hours to qualify or because they're self-employed. They're a gig economy worker, for example.

So if you don't qualify for EI and you have lost income because of COVID-19, you will qualify for this bucket, right? That's right. And so who conceivably are we talking about here? Can we just go through a couple of examples? Yeah. So really importantly, self-employed people, you know, people who have a small business, for example, or work from home already, they don't typically have access to employment insurance.

They don't have access to EI. They will have access to CERB. So maybe like an Uber driver, a personal trainer. Absolutely. Someone who doesn't have an employer per se, you know, someone who isn't working for a major company or even a midsize company or the government or whatever, they will have access to the CERB.

They will not have to prove that they were employed recently by a company to get access to these funds. They just have to tell the government, yes, I earned $5,000. You know, it could be freelance writing or fitness training, as you say, tell the government, yes, I earned $5,000. You know, it could be freelance writing or fitness training, as you say, in the last 12 months, and they will have access to this money sometime by mid-April. We're not quite sure of the exact date yet, but we're talking about a ton of people, like covers virtually every worker in this country. They

will have access to the CERB. That's why it's so costly. That's why it's about $55 billion that's going to cost the Federal Treasury to roll this thing out. Right. Trudeau said today, even if you're still employed, but not receiving income because of this crisis, the CERB is there for you. And so I'm assuming this could mean somebody who has to stay home to take care of their children who are out of school, who just maybe isn't picking up shifts, or there aren't any shifts for them to pick up. Yeah, this is for them. The CERB is absolutely for them. If you're taking care of a sick person at home right now, or if you have your kids home from school or daycare, and you're not collecting a paycheck because you're not working at that restaurant, or you're not working at that bar right now, you will be able to collect the CERB to help

you get through the next several weeks and potentially months as we as the pandemic really spreads across our country. Okay, and you mentioned $55 billion. I know this is part of a of a package, a $107 billion package, basically an emergency package. And so how much money can a person expect to receive from the CERB? And how would that compare to EI, for example? Yeah, so the income support payments will be about $2,000 a month for every adult. So if you're an adult worker in this country, you can expect to receive about $2,000 a month for the next 16 weeks, so for the next four months. But the problem is, for a lot of people,

they need money right now. And the system just really isn't set up at this point. They're hoping to have the application process open sometime in early April, so early next month. And the Prime Minister said today that when they get the application process open, about 10 days later, the money will start to flow. So we're really looking at mid-April at this point. And as I said, people can count on that CERB payment process for four months. So people will not be expected to go right back to work if things start to improve, say, in June or something. They will have a little more extra time to get to the end of that month to have that, that flexibility to get back on their feet and have a stable paying job again. Okay. I know Trudeau also mentioned on Wednesday, that they're looking to at increasing

the wage subsidy. So employers can keep workers on the payroll. So this would be like another tool, I guess that they're throwing at this. So even if those workers are in self-isolation, this is what business groups are demanding. Tell me a little bit more about that. Yeah, so many businesses in this country are just dying on the vine and they really need more help. And you're exactly right.

A coalition of business groups today sent a letter to the government, you know, asking for more direct funding to cover the wages of their employees. So right now, Ottawa is offering up to 10% in terms of a wage subsidy for small businesses. But a lot of people have said that's not going to cut it. I mean, if we look around to other countries like Germany and Denmark and the United Kingdom, a bunch of countries in the European Union are offering a whole lot more. Some of them up to 80 percent of the income of employees will be covered by the federal government in those countries. So a huge difference between 10 and 80 percent. And the prime minister said today, you know, we're ready to look at other options.

We're going to look, he said, specifically at Germany and Denmark, which are offering that 80% wage subsidy. And maybe we can replicate something similar here in this country to save businesses, especially things like restaurants, which, you know, some of them might not make it, you know, for four months, they can't pay their rent, they can't keep everything going. We're looking at other options to keep them afloat to really get that industry back on its feet when things do improve. Right. And I know another argument connected to this is, you know, it's good to keep people on the payroll because eventually when things do get moving again, it's just easier for people to stay on the payroll. It's more likely that they'll just retain their jobs. I want to move on to another significant measure announced today by Health Minister Patti Hajdu.

So she announced that travelers returning home must enter mandatory self-isolation. And she's invoking or the government is invoking the Quarantine Act. And what will this mean for people returning to Canada? I understand this goes into effect at midnight. Yeah, so what we're talking about here is mandatory. Mandatory isolation for all travelers returning to Canada as of midnight tonight. So, you know, people arriving by car, train, boat, tricycle, you know, if you're walking to the border, whatever it might be, you must go into mandatory isolation.

You cross the border, you go straight home, no stopping. It's like I equate it to the go to jail card in Monopoly, Jamie. It's like go directly to jail, do not pass go, do not collect 200 bucks. Right. Do not stop at the grocery store. Yeah. Do not stop at the grocery store. Do not go to the pharmacy.

You got to go home and if you need any supplies ask a neighbor ask a friend ask a relative you know try and get online and get some of those grocery options that are available to you now you cannot go out and about when you cross the border you have to go straight home and they're the canada border services agency cbsa they will have officers informing all canadians and all permanent residents and anyone who's crossing the border that they have to go home they have to go into isolation and also an important point too they're going to actually forbid people from taking public transit when they get here too so that may be problematic for a lot of people who you know arrive at pearson they're used to pearson airport in toronto they might be used to taking the bus or the Union Express or whatever it might be.

They can't do that. They need to go by other means. And so that complicates things. But they said today, the government said the Public Health Agency of Canada is working on arranging private transportation for people to get from airports, for example, back to their homes for that people are not people potentially people who are infected with COVID-19 aren't just hopping on the TTC and spreading it all around to potentially, you know, hundreds more people that is not going to

fly now, you got to go home. And if you can't, the government's going to help you help you get home, because they really just want to keep the spread at a minimum, as you can imagine. And if this is not just what we've been hearing to this point, as you can imagine. And this is not just what we've been hearing to this point. You know, to this point, they've been saying, we recommend, you should, like, it's very strongly encouraged that you stay home for 14 days. This is mandatory, and it will be enforced by the police. There are penalties under that quarantine act you mentioned. People can be fined up to a million dollars. That's probably not going to happen, but they can be fined smaller amounts like $1,000, $2,000, $3,000, or they could be

sent to prison if they violate the Quarantine Act provisions. Some provinces have put in similar measures. Dwight Ball, Premier of Newfoundland and Labrador is saying that they'll take away people's driver's licenses who break this. So this idea of enforcement, what's going to happen here? Are they going to show up at people's houses to see if they're actually obeying this quarantine, the 14 day quarantine? Yeah, they will show up at your house. I mean,

this is going to be left to local police officers to enforce. They're going to be relying on provincial and municipal police forces to help enforce the quarantine act. They already have the power to do that. I mean, we saw just last week, on Friday, I guess it was, a Quebec City woman was actually arrested. She had tested positive for coronavirus. Someone saw her out and about.

They called the police and they arrested her and they fined her. So this is happening already. This is already going on in provincial jurisdictions across the country. And Patti Hajdu, the Minister of Health, she suggested earlier this week that there will be essentially a hotline that people can call in when they're concerned about a neighbor or a family member who is not complying with this demand that people stay home for 14 days when they return from another country. So there will be a hotline that people can call in with concerns and police will be following up

with people, checking on them at home to make sure that if they have come from another country, they have to be at home so that they do not spread COVID-19 to the rest of us who are here in this country. Okay. Wow. That is quite something. JP, thank you so much. We'll talk to you soon. Thanks, Jamie. Thanks, Jamie.

Okay, that's it for tonight. Tomorrow morning, we have a story on how COVID-19 took hold, spread and claimed lives inside the Lynn Valley Care Center in British Columbia. That's where the country's first coronavirus death occurred. I'm Jamie Poisson. Thanks so much for listening. For more CBC Podcasts, go to cbc.ca slash podcasts.