In March when Covid-19 hit cities across Canada and resulted in a shutdown of many businesses and the economy, the Canada Emergency Relief Benefit (CERB) helped millions of people weather the worst of the storm. The $500 weekly payments to people who lost their job due to coronavirus or had their hours reduced and had … Continued
As the son of a mom who works in lib government, let me weigh in. Cerb doesn’t go far enough. It only covers people who got laid off or had job issues due to covid. I remember early in the pandemic I was visiting, sitting at her table doing some studying and she had a constituent call. He was low income and had chronic pain in his mouth to the point where he couldn't eat. He couldn’t get cerb because he was on disability or something, he hadn’t lost his job due to covid, he was unemployed before that for a different reason. No dentist could do the surgery at that point cause everything was closed. The only ones that could do it cost far too much, but the guy couldn’t pick up on enough benefits to cover it. It was kind of haunting hearing my mom going through the numbers on what programs there were that he had already tried but couldn’t do. We absolutely need a stronger system than this and a more inclusive medical system. Yes, it’s better than the US, but it still isn’t enough.
As the son of a mom who works in lib government, let me weigh in. Cerb doesn’t go far enough. It only covers people who got laid off or had job issues due to covid. I remember early in the pandemic I was visiting, sitting at her table doing some studying and she had a constituent call. He was low income and had chronic pain in his mouth to the point where he couldn't eat. He couldn’t get cerb because he was on disability or something, he hadn’t lost his job due to covid, he was unemployed before that for a different reason. No dentist could do the surgery at that point cause everything was closed. The only ones that could do it cost far too much, but the guy couldn’t pick up on enough benefits to cover it. It was kind of haunting hearing my mom going through the numbers on what programs there were that he had already tried but couldn’t do. We absolutely need a stronger system than this and a more inclusive medical system. Yes, it’s better than the US, but it still isn’t enough.