I would state that the CERB, while closing in on a universal benefit, is not yet a universal benefit, given some of the constraints. For instance, March 15 was the point at which you had to become unemployed in order to access it. Another constraint was the requirement for $5,000 in earnings in the previous year, and another one was that your earnings had to have dropped to zero.
With one in five working Canadians receiving the CERB, assuming that there aren't that many duplicate applications, this is rapidly becoming a basic income for working-age Canadians.
We have a basic income already for seniors. It's called the guaranteed income supplement. As well, there is old age security, as you know. For families with children, the Canada child benefit, I would argue, formed a base income of sorts. I think that the emergency payments through the Canada child benefit as well as the GST credit structure or LIFT, which are coming out both this month and next month, are also important pieces of this. They would arguably form a basic income that's a bit more automatic in a sense.
I actually would like to see the GST emergency benefit extended, not just for a single month but for several months while the crisis lasts, because it doesn't go just to working-age Canadians but to all Canadians: seniors, families with children, working-age Canadians and so on.
In terms of the 2.1 million Canadians who've seen the majority of their hours cut between February and March, this is a substantial new group that does not have access to the CERB at present. There is some discussion now about allowing people whose hours have been reduced to only 10 a week or who now make, because of hours reduced, less than $500 a week to gain some form of access to the CERB. I think this will become increasingly important going into April and May, as the true impact of this COVID-19 crisis on the labour force survey becomes evident.