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e-3282 (Social affairs and equality)

E-petition
Initiated by Michel Le Blond from Vancouver, British Columbia

Original language of petition: English

Petition to the Government of Canada

Whereas:
  • The Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) was created to provide financial support to employed and self-employed Canadians who were directly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic;
  • The CERB program was drawn up in haste and the federal government pledged that it would be adjusted to ensure that no one would be left behind;
  • At the onset of the program, it was stated that the $5000 income requirement for the CERB was arbitrary and that the federal government’s intention was to get support to as many Canadians as possible and as quickly as possible;
  • The stated intent of the CERB was income replacement in an economy constrained by pandemic control measures;
  • The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives estimates that 175,000 workers did not qualify for the CERB, despite being laid off due to the COVID-19 pandemic, because they did not meet the $5,000 income requirement;
  • The federal government asked Canadians not yet included in the CERB eligibility criteria to be patient as the program was adjusted and expanded;
  • Individuals who did not qualify for the CERB due to the $5000 income requirement waited in good faith, but the CERB program was not adjusted as promised;
  • The replacement Canada Recovery Benefit (CRB) maintained the $5000 income requirement; and
  • Both programs have fundamentally failed to deliver on their stated mandates for a significant number of working Canadians.
We, the undersigned, citizens and residents of Canada, call upon the Government of Canada to retroactively remove the CERB and CRB’s $5000 income requirement to allow individuals to receive both backdated and future payments for which they were previously ineligible due to this requirement.
Open for signature
March 31, 2021, at 10:14 a.m. (EDT)
Closed for signature
May 30, 2021, at 10:14 a.m. (EDT)
Presented to the House of Commons
Don Davies (Vancouver Kingsway)
June 16, 2021 (Petition No. 432-01123)
Photo - Don Davies
Vancouver Kingsway
New Democratic Party Caucus
British Columbia