Hello. Thank you very much for inviting me to appear today to speak to Bill C-19.
My name is Leila Sarangi and I'm the national director of Campaign 2000, which is a coalition of over 120 organizations working to end child and family poverty.
Today, more than one in six children in Canada lives in poverty. There are measures in budget 2022 that are extremely important for these children and families: dental care for children, starting this year, and new investments in Jordan's principle to advance equitable access to services for first nations children. Infrastructure investment in housing and child care, if designed well and targeted, would also eventually help low-income children and families, but that is still years away. Today, low-income and marginalized families continue to struggle with poverty and the ongoing effects of the pandemic.
We know this budget wants to turn the page on income supports to individuals. This is where I'm going to focus my comments today, because it's so crucial to the families I'm representing.
On May 7, just over a week ago, all pandemic-related income benefits to individuals expired. This included the lockdown benefit, the sickness benefit and the caregiving benefit. Temporary EI eligibility requirements are set to expire on September 25 of this year, and promised permanent reform is not allocated in this budget. We have not yet turned the page on the virus and it is still out there making people sick, but now there are no income supports for people who need to isolate or care for family.
Further, budget 2022 does not deal with the punitive clawbacks to income benefits experienced by low- and moderate-income families. These clawbacks started almost immediately for people who received social and disability assistance. Taxes filed last year triggered further clawbacks on GIS and Canada child benefit payments, as well as to a range of provincial and territorial benefits. In July of this year, we expect yet another round of clawbacks to refundable tax credits, including additional clawbacks to the Canada child benefit, a program that we know is crucial to lifting children out of poverty.
I want to be really clear on this point: These clawbacks are detrimental and punitive. From the outset of the pandemic, we have been collecting stories about how income benefits help low-income earners meet their basic needs. People shopped locally and buoyed local economies with their purchases. We have been collecting stories about the shock of these clawbacks, which were not expected. These families do not have the financial resiliency to deal with unforeseen reductions, or even foreseen reductions, to their monthly budgets—budgets that have to account for every nickel and dime, because there is so little money, especially right now with rising inflation and the rising cost of living.
Now the government is seeking CERB and CRB repayments. Letters have been sent out by Service Canada and the CRA. Maternity benefits are already being garnisheed by 50% for new mothers. We understand that flexible payment plans are being offered on an individual basis, which is a nice gesture, but even a $25 monthly repayment plan means that families will skip a meal, medication or Internet bill payment to make that payment.
Clawbacks to GIS for low-income seniors have been reversed, repayment relief has been given to the self-employed and partial relief has been provided to students. Our recommendation today is to provide what we have been calling a “full CERB amnesty”. This includes immediately ceasing pursuit of people living on low or moderate incomes for repayments of CERB and CRB; legislating the reinstatement of pandemic income benefits at the full $500 weekly amount until employment insurance is reformed; refunding all lost benefit amounts related to CERB and CRB receipt; and ensuring social and disability assistance adequacy through increased investments in the Canada social transfer, tied to adequacy standards and accountability mechanisms.
Thank you for your time today. I look forward to answering any questions.