Canada’s last remaining COVID-19 emergency benefits expire today and the federal government says it has no plans to renew its unprecedented support programs, created in response to the pandemic.
Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland’s office says Canada’s surging job growth and record-low unemployment rate is evidence that ongoing pandemic support will not be needed beyond May 7.
“From the onset of the pandemic, our relentless focus was on jobs — on keeping Canadians employed and on keeping their employers afloat,” Freeland’s press secretary Adrienne Vaupshas said in an email.
“With our economy in this position, the time for extraordinary COVID support is now over,” Vaupshas added, echoing a declaration made by Freeland during her introduction of the 2022 budget in April.
Public health officials are also saying they’re cautiously optimistic about signs that transmission levels are on the decline.
During a Friday news conference, Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Theresa Tam said Canada is experiencing “decreasing transmission in many areas.” Some indicators, such as wastewater virus levels, indicate that the Omicron wave is “showing signs of a potential plateau,” Tam added.
‘Our ability to spend is not infinite. The time for extraordinary COVID support is over,’ said Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland on April 7. (Justin Tang/The Canadian Press)
The expiration of benefits means workers will no longer be paid by the government should they need to self-isolate due to a positive COVID test, or if they have to leave work to care for a child due to sickness or pandemic-related school closures.
A program for workers forced off the job due to local lockdowns also ends today.
Programs designed to support hard-hit businesses, such as one that subsidized a portion of employee wages, are also ending.
The following programs are among those expiring on May 7:
Canada Worker Lockdown Benefit
Canada Recovery Sickness Benefit
Canada Recovery Caregiving Benefit
Canada Recovery Hiring Program
Tourism and Hospitality Recovery Program
Hardest-Hit Business Recovery Program
Applications for these programs can be made retroactively and will continue to be accepted by the government after May 7. Those applying for workers’ benefits have 60 days to submit their claims, while businesses have 180 days.
Workers still ‘live and exist in a pandemic’
Alyse Stuart, a union representative for the Fish, Food and Allied Workers in Newfoundland and Labrador, said Ottawa’s decision to end the benefits ignores the pandemic’s continued disruption of Atlantic Canada’s fishing sector.
She described a wave of infections running through processing plants that are just now ramping up for the busy summer season.
Most workers in these facilities don’t have access to paid sick days, Stuart said, which is forcing them into a difficult choice between self-isolating and missing paycheques or going to work while sick.
“For us, it’s kind of this perfect storm where these benefits are ending while we’re just experiencing our own wave in these rural communities,” Stuart told CBC News.
“For our members, and certainly for our rural communities, the time is still now for extraordinary measures because we continue to live and exist in a pandemic.”
Small businesses struggling with debt
The Canadian Federation of Independent Business is also warning that the end of business-focused supports could make it hard for struggling businesses to get back on their feet.
“Whether the supports that end this weekend are still the right supports is probably a good debate that we can have,” said Corinne Pohlmann, senior vice president of national affairs at CFIB.
Only 40 per cent of small businesses have returned to pre-pandemic revenue levels, said Corinne Pohlmann, vice president of national affairs at the Canadian Federation of Independent Business. (Candian Federation of Independent Business)
She said the expiration of benefits today may be appropriate, but she called on Ottawa to consider further long-term support for businesses that have accumulated large amounts of debt during the pandemic.
The group specifically wants to see Ottawa forgive half of all debt acquired through the Canada Emergency Business Account program and to extend the repayment deadline by an extra year to December 31, 2023.
The average small business debt now stands at $140,000, according to CFIB figures, and businesses in sectors like the arts and hospitality are even deeper in the red.
“We need to still think about how we can help those hard-hit businesses that are struggling under debt that they had to accumulate through no fault of their own,” Pohlmann said.
VANCOUVER – Contract negotiations resume today in Vancouver in a labour dispute that has paralyzed container cargo shipping at British Columbia’s ports since Monday.
The BC Maritime Employers Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 are scheduled to meet for the next three days in mediated talks to try to break a deadlock in negotiations.
The union, which represents more than 700 longshore supervisors at ports, including Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Nanaimo, has been without a contract since March last year.
The latest talks come after employers locked out workers in response to what it said was “strike activity” by union members.
The start of the lockout was then followed by several days of no engagement between the two parties, prompting federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to speak with leaders on both sides, asking them to restart talks.
MacKinnon had said that the talks were “progressing at an insufficient pace, indicating a concerning absence of urgency from the parties involved” — a sentiment echoed by several business groups across Canada.
In a joint letter, more than 100 organizations, including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Business Council of Canada and associations representing industries from automotive and fertilizer to retail and mining, urged the government to do whatever it takes to end the work stoppage.
“While we acknowledge efforts to continue with mediation, parties have not been able to come to a negotiated agreement,” the letter says. “So, the federal government must take decisive action, using every tool at its disposal to resolve this dispute and limit the damage caused by this disruption.
“We simply cannot afford to once again put Canadian businesses at risk, which in turn puts Canadian livelihoods at risk.”
In the meantime, the union says it has filed a complaint to the Canada Industrial Relations Board against the employers, alleging the association threatened to pull existing conditions out of the last contract in direct contact with its members.
“The BCMEA is trying to undermine the union by attempting to turn members against its democratically elected leadership and bargaining committee — despite the fact that the BCMEA knows full well we received a 96 per cent mandate to take job action if needed,” union president Frank Morena said in a statement.
The employers have responded by calling the complaint “another meritless claim,” adding the final offer to the union that includes a 19.2 per cent wage increase over a four-year term remains on the table.
“The final offer has been on the table for over a week and represents a fair and balanced proposal for employees, and if accepted would end this dispute,” the employers’ statement says. “The offer does not require any concessions from the union.”
The union says the offer does not address the key issue of staffing requirement at the terminals as the port introduces more automation to cargo loading and unloading, which could potentially require fewer workers to operate than older systems.
The Port of Vancouver is the largest in Canada and has seen a number of labour disruptions, including two instances involving the rail and grain storage sectors earlier this year.
A 13-day strike by another group of workers at the port last year resulted in the disruption of a significant amount of shipping and trade.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
The Royal Canadian Legion says a new partnership with e-commerce giant Amazon is helping boost its veterans’ fund, and will hopefully expand its donor base in the digital world.
Since the Oct. 25 launch of its Amazon.ca storefront, the legion says it has received nearly 10,000 orders for poppies.
Online shoppers can order lapel poppies on Amazon in exchange for donations or buy items such as “We Remember” lawn signs, Remembrance Day pins and other accessories, with all proceeds going to the legion’s Poppy Trust Fund for Canadian veterans and their families.
Nujma Bond, the legion’s national spokesperson, said the organization sees this move as keeping up with modern purchasing habits.
“As the world around us evolves we have been looking at different ways to distribute poppies and to make it easier for people to access them,” she said in an interview.
“This is definitely a way to reach a wider number of Canadians of all ages. And certainly younger Canadians are much more active on the web, on social media in general, so we’re also engaging in that way.”
Al Plume, a member of a legion branch in Trenton, Ont., said the online store can also help with outreach to veterans who are far from home.
“For veterans that are overseas and are away, (or) can’t get to a store they can order them online, it’s Amazon.” Plume said.
Plume spent 35 years in the military with the Royal Engineers, and retired eight years ago. He said making sure veterans are looked after is his passion.
“I’ve seen the struggles that our veterans have had with Veterans Affairs … and that’s why I got involved, with making sure that the people get to them and help the veterans with their paperwork.”
But the message about the Amazon storefront didn’t appear to reach all of the legion’s locations, with volunteers at Branch 179 on Vancouver’s Commercial Drive saying they hadn’t heard about the online push.
Holly Paddon, the branch’s poppy campaign co-ordinator and bartender, said the Amazon partnership never came up in meetings with other legion volunteers and officials.
“I work at the legion, I work with the Vancouver poppy office and I go to the meetings for the Vancouver poppy campaign — which includes all the legions in Vancouver — and not once has this been mentioned,” she said.
Paddon said the initiative is a great idea, but she would like to have known more about it.
The legion also sells a larger collection of items at poppystore.ca.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
