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The 2020 Speech from the Throne contained the following passage: “COVID-19 has disproportionately affected Canadians with disabilities, and highlighted long-standing challenges. The Government will bring forward a Disability Inclusion Plan, which will have: A new Canadian Disability Benefit modelled after the Guaranteed Income Supplement (GIS) for seniors[1].” At best, I believe that a Canadian Disability Benefit (CDB) can place a new floor underneath current programs of every sort except for social assistance programs. Social assistance programs have always successfully installed themselves as last payer. Unless, of course, the new benefit replaces social assistance. But before we get into all that, let’s read the tea leaves. If the CDB is going to be like GIS as the Throne Speech says, we can only hope that it doesn’t look too much like…

Who would benefit from a CERB amnesty? Many progressive voices have been calling for a CERB amnesty for low income Canadians. This would mean that specified recipients of the CERB would not have to pay back the CERB – either all or in part – even if they are found ineligible for the benefit. There are a variety of reasons for supporting an amnesty including: Many social assistance recipients across Canada – likely ineligible for the benefit - were instructed by officials to apply for the CERB just in case they might be eligible;CERB rules kept changing after the first announcement of eligibility rules;Many low income people faced the difficult choice between exposing themselves to COVID19 or staying safe in isolation with  CERB financial help;Many thousands applied not really knowing…

On the very last day of an eventful July 2020, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau gave us some hints as to what will happen when the largest single income security program in Canadian history closes its doors at the beginning of October. I was getting nervous as that was only 2 months away. This is how the press reported the PM’s announcement. “The Canadian government has announced it will create a new transitional benefit for workers who have exhausted their CERB and don’t qualify for EI, including gig and contract workers. Meanwhile, Canadians who are eligible for EI will be transitioned to that platform as the CERB approaches its scheduled expiry on September 26. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the new benefit will operate similarly to EI, and will include access…

Living in the eye of the COVID19 income security hurricane We enter the most prolific part of the hurricane season in August. As part of hurricane lore, we are reminded that major hurricanes have a well-formed 'eye' where a tranquil calm prevails for a short period following the turmoil of the hurricane's leading edge. We also live in the tranquil eye of the COVID19 income security hurricane. We entered the storm with the COVID19 pandemic but the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) and a variety of other federal and provincial programs saw us through the first part of the COVID19 storm. We now live in strange summer calm. The dog days of summer are upon us. With COVID19 benefits - principally those receiving the CERB - food is purchased reasonably easily,…

Welcome to the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) clawback summer reader! Here you will find a highly biased curated list of readings on the CERB clawback for those long lazy afternoons deep in your CERB hammock-induced somnabulance. First, you can get all the up to date data on (the) CERB here. The COVID19 pandemic has spawned the largest income security program in the history of our nation so these numbers are important especially when we prepare to dismantle this massive program. Let’s start out with the original announcement back on March 25 by the Prime Minister. Back then, we did not know that the CERB would attract a T4A (other income) until the announcement that showed us all how we could repay the CERB starting May 11. This is an…

Most of us who follow these programs know we are in the eye of an income security storm anesthetized by the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) and its newly announced extension through the summer of 2020.  What happens afterwards is anybody's guess but CERB is such a massive program, its demise will cause more earthquakes than tremors.   In just a few months, the CERB has become Canada’s largest income security program estimated to spend as much as $71 billion. What is even more amazing, this new program is about to either disappear or become something very different. If the CERB morphs into something else, we need to be vigilant as to what that will be. It could be a Universal Basic Income (UBI) as some would hope but the CERB…

Ontario’s two social assistance programs and its rent geared to income program are contained under the regulations in three pieces of legislation: The Ontario Works (OW) ActThe Ontario Disability Support Act (ODSP); andThe Housing Services Act Appended here are 36 pages listing all 219 forms of income that are exempted in full in these programs. Many of the exemptions overlap. This means that the same exemptions are in many cases repeated in all three sets of regulations. For social assistance, this means that recipients can receive these forms of income (76 in OW and 82 in ODSP) and they will in no way affect the determination of the allowances or benefits. They may receive these forms of income on top of their assistance. For subsidized housing, there are 61 forms…

Talk to almost any program design expert and they will tell you that the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) is an incredibly badly designed program. They will also tell you that at the beginning of a pandemic crisis with little information, an economic lockdown and no vaccine, it is exactly what we needed. The CERB is incredibly simple; a few rules, a flat amount of $2000 a month, an internet connection and a social insurance number and Bingo! The program is out the door. It's like tying a jet engine to a VW Beetle and opening the engine at full throttle. It’s going to fly off the launch pad and go wherever it goes and it did. Step right up! Click the ‘submit’ button and away we go! You lost…

 On Saturday May 30, 2020, in large red letters in the Toronto Star’s Insight section, the question is asked: “Is the time ripe for a basic income?”[1] Beside the headline, some supposedly provocative figures are mashed together: “$2000 – Monthly amount of the Canada Emergency Response Benefit$151.7 billion – Total emergency spending to date including $40 billion to 8 million on CERB$86 billion – Estimated annual cost of a basic income the last time it was looked at$260 billion – Revised estimated deficit, $8 billion higher than last reported.”[2] I think what the headline and the numbers are trying to acknowledge is that, as a nation, we suddenly agreed with the idea of handing out large amounts of money to our residents who lost income because of the COVID19 crisis.…

A modern history of benefit confiscation from social assistance, RGI housing, post-secondary assistance and low income seniors programs in the time before COVID19 In 1935, the newly minted Minister of Ontario’s Public Welfare department, David Croll, was faced with a new dilemma respecting the delivery of ‘relief’ to the poor. A significant number of municipalities across the province were declaring bankruptcy. Their workforces were being furloughed and being added to unemployment lines. Up until then, municipal staff had gathered bags of food, coal and coke for furnaces, clothes hampers and personal effects and delivered them to the poor who lined up for these provisions at municipal offices. But with no staff to stuff bags, relief lines were growing shorter even though the need was just as great. The 35 year…