Feds focusing on COVID-19 benefits that ‘incentivize work,’ says Qualtrough
Global News
The new measures are aimed at replacing the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy and the Canada Emergency Rent Subsidy, which expired on Saturday.
Employment Minister Carla Qualtrough says shifting the government’s COVID-19 support programs from ones that were more “passive” to those that “incentivize work” is a reflection of the country’s success in fighting the pandemic.
The new measures are aimed at replacing the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy (CEWS) and the Canada Emergency Rent Subsidy (CERS), which expired on Saturday despite labour shortages looming across the country.
“These were always intended to be temporary measures,” Qualtrough said of the federal government’s Canada Recovery Benefit (CRB) program that doles out up to $500 a week to those affected by the pandemic, on an episode of Global News’ The West Block.
“It’s where we are in the evolution of this pandemic, and it’s actually a reflection of how we’ve succeeded economically and recovering.”
Faced with a labour shortage, Qualtrough said the federal government needed to move to a more targeted approach that really “focuses on the sectors that haven’t recovered” and will support employees who would be unable to attend work during a lockdown.
Canada’s labour shortage is affecting a wide range of industries as both big and small businesses struggle to attract employees coming out of months or years away from the workplace. A report released last month found more than 60 per cent of Canadian businesses surveyed said widespread labour shortages were limiting their growth.
Qualtrough said there were shortages before the pandemic began, noting that the federal government’s hiring program has been notoriously “under-utilized.”
“I think that’s a matter of us getting the message out that if you want to give people more hours, if you want to hire more people, if you want to increase the salary of the people you have on your staff, that’s all eligible under the hiring program,” she added.
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