CERB

(Financial Aid stock photo) by (Hailshadow) is licensed under (iStock)

When Canada went into its first lockdown in March of 2020, an estimated 3.1 million Canadians lost their jobs or were forced to work significantly reduced hours due to quarantine restrictions. Around 5 million people applied for the many forms of federal emergency unemployment financial aid. In addition to unemployment insurance, the Canadian Government created the Canada Emergency Response Benefit, known as CERB. This fiscal measure aided a larger part of the population than the unemployment benefits and came with specific criteria that carried serious impacts.

The official definition provided for CERB’s initiation was, “an emergency response benefit that provided workers facing unemployment directly caused by the pandemic 2,000$ a month in lieu of a regular salary.” All applicants had to be Canadian citizens of at least 15 years old and have earned a minimum of 5,000$. Furthermore, the person in question must have lost their job directly due to COVID-19. The benefit could be claimed for a maximum of 28 weeks or 7 months from March 15, 2020 to September 26, 2020, up to a maximum of 14,000$. This money was taxable and ended with CERB being broken up into smaller, more specific categories that have been paid out to eligible applicants well into 2021.

To start, CERB brought many advantages to a country ravaged by a pandemic and a harsh lockdown. Over one third of the population that earned at least 5,000$ in 2019 applied and received CERB payments. From these workers, some in more fragile sectors were given a much needed boost by these payments as federal statistics indicate that 66.6% of food services and accommodation workers depended on these payments followed by 62.7% of workers in the arts, recreation and entertainment sectors. The two sectors encompass everything from small businesses to restaurants, hotels, taxis all the way to low-wage workers and young workers.This funding went to individuals who lived paycheque to paycheque, and ensured that homelessness. CTV News did a special report on how people used their CERB payments during the pandemic and the answers ranged from buying school supplies to paying for medication, groceries and even rent. 

CERB allowed individuals to spend money on supplies that were drastically needed in times of low unemployment. Breanna Chadburn, from Summerland B.C., spoke to CTV News to explain how she got laid off from the dental clinic she worked at and was unable to continue her second job. Since she could not afford the 1,500$ daycare for her two little girls, her family feared they would have to dig into the girls’ RESP to feed their family. The CERB payment they received managed to cover their rent so they could use their salaries to pay for food and basic utilities during their unemployment. Stories like these are abundant and clearly show the great difference this benefit has made in Canadian lives.

CERB was calculated by Statistics Canada to have been used primarily by women, including many single mothers and minorities, including First Nations and Metis. This demonstrates that CERB came to the aid of more vulnerable groups and demographics,who have been seen to be the people most seriously affected by the pandemic. All in all, the Canadian Emergency Response Benefit truly helped unemployed workers survive this stressful and volatile period of the pandemic.

On the other hand, for all the good CERB did, it also created a lot of problems for the authorities and honest citizens. As the application could be done online and even by telephone, many people took advantage of the system to commit fraud. As the government rushed to provide aid for the millions of unemployed workers in need, they put very lax security on the application system and on ensuring that applicants met the correct criteria to be eligible. When a CRA reported her experiences she stated that she spoke to many people on the phone who claimed they had received CERB cheques. When she checked, she realized they were not eligible. Others, a source told the CBC, were pressured by family and friends to apply, finding loopholes in the system. It was reported that even jail inmates in Trois-Rivières had received $2,000 payments that were intercepted. Even the Employment and Workplace Development Minister Carla Qualtrough admitted that this program came with a great risk of fraud but claimed that the government took the risk in order to allow more people access quickly. The government initially estimated a cost of 35 billion dollars for CERB but later calculated a cost around 77 billion. From this substantial sum, it is unclear how many were who knows how many were legitimate CERB claims.

Furthermore, it is not only the government’s deficit that was taken advantage of with fake CERB claims. Many scammers targeted ordinary people with fake phone calls impersonating federal agencies. In May 2020, one month into the period of CERB payments, CBC reported that Canadians had lost around 1.2 millions dollars in scams. Con artist preyed on vulnerable and frightened people facing difficult times and tricked them into filling out Excel sheets with personal information, which were then used to steal their money. The difficult part, according to experts at the Canadian Centre for Cyber Security, is that these scams are disguised as government websites, including Public Health Agency of Canada, the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) and the Canada Border Services Agency. According to CTV News in Toronto, scammers have even stolen individuals’ identities and applied for CERB in their name. They succeeded in hacking Canadians CRA accounts and taking all their personal information, causing panic as government websites are usually considered to be secure. All in all, while CERB has certainly provided aid for millions of unemployed workers, it has also created auspicious environment for certain citizens to manipulate their way into money they did not earn.

In conclusion, while the Canadian Emergency Response Benefit officially closed in September 2020, it has broken off into more specific programs such as the Canada Recovery Benefit, the Canada Child Benefit, the Canada Caregiving Benefit and the Canada Wage Subsidy among others, which continue what the government began with CERB. Careful analysis and comparison of the benefits and disadvantages of CERB, show beyond a doubt that the program was worth the risk. And even with the frauds and the scams, it gave many Canadians ameans to survive during the pandemic until a semblance of normalcy was acheived.