Trudeau Says Making CERB Universal Isn’t As ‘Simple’ As It Sounds
The temporary income support provides $500 weekly, for up to 16 weeks, to eligible Canadians who’ve stopped working because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Concerns have been raised that Canadians who don’t qualify for the CERB are falling through the cracks, spurring questions about why the government hasn’t provided direct financial assistance to everyone amid the crisis.
“Our focus at this point, and from the very beginning, has been on getting help to people who needed it,” Trudeau said Wednesday. “There are millions of Canadians who need help. There are others who do not need help.”
see Zi-Ann Lum article in the Huffpost
Zi-Ann Lum is an Ottawa-based federal politics reporter with HuffPost Canada. She is a member of the Canadian Parliamentary Press Gallery as well as the Canadian Association of Journalists. She reports on issues related to inequality, climate and environment, Indigenous rights, and national security.
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Sen. Kim Pate co-authored the open letter and told HuffPost Canada that there are still plenty of Canadians impacted by the pandemic who are not being assisted.
Prior to her appointment to the Senate in 2016, Pate spent 40 years working in and around the legal and penal systems with marginalized, victimized, criminalized, and institutionalized individuals.
“We have seen the evisceration of our economic and social safety net and health safety net over the past number of decades that’s resulted in many people not having their needs met, whether it’s their health needs or their economic needs or both,” she said in an interview.
“Those most on the margins are the people who are being left behind. And those are the individuals that we’re trying to assist.”
check Policy Options of Basic Income Canada Network to see how we can pay for it.
