CERB

Many Canadians have been left stunned or in tears after being told by the Canada Revenue Agency that they might need to pay back all the money they got from the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB).

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the more generous benefits being provided to out-of-work Canadians during the pandemic shouldn't be seen as permanent changes to the social safety net.

The employment insurance system absorbed almost 1.3 million people in the last three weeks, new figures show, as a key COVID-19 benefit wound down.

The federal government is switching up its relief programs for unemployed Canadians after doling out $69.37 billion to 8.61 million people across the country whose jobs were impacted by COVID-19.

The federal Liberals are rolling out a $37-billion income-support plan for workers whose earnings have crashed during the pandemic, providing a hint of future changes to the social safety net — and igniting a debate about what should stay.

The federal Liberal government says it will transfer workers who lost work due to the COVID-19 pandemic and have been receiving emergency benefits onto new recovery versions of employment insurance, but will let benefits for students expire.

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh is calling on Ottawa to provide the provinces with billions in funding for child care — a demand that could help determine whether the minority Liberal government survives.

The federal government plans to move as many out-of-work Canadians into the employment insurance system when a key emergency benefit runs out in the fall, and provide an EI-like support for millions who can't qualify under existing rules.

Food insecurity can only be solved by raising incomes and food banks are an ad hoc solution that senior levels of government rely on to avoid repairing a frayed social safety net, says expert Graham Riches.

Opposition parties are asking the federal ethics watchdog to widen his probe of Bill Morneau regarding the WE organization as the finance minister continues to face calls for his resignation.

The Senate finance committee released an interim report July 14 on COVID-19 that recommends “full, fair and priority consideration” be given to a federal basic income guarantee, in consultation with the provinces, territories and Indigenous governments. 

The federal government is for the second time extending its program to subsidize wages in companies hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, this time until at least December.

Opposition parties have laid out their demands for the federal Liberal government as Ottawa prepares to update Canadians on the country's finances after four months of COVID-19 — and where it expects the economy to head for the rest of the year.

A Liberal pledge to provide eight extra weeks of payments through the cornerstone benefit for people who've lost all or nearly all their work due to the COVID-19 pandemic is likely to cost the government $17.9 billion, the parliamentary budget officer says.