Mr. Speaker, the Government of Canada has taken strong, immediate and effective action to protect Canadians and the economy from the impacts of the global COVID-19 pandemic. On March 25, 2020, the Government of Canada announced the Canada emergency response benefit, CERB, a taxable benefit of $2,000 per month for eligible workers whose income and employment were affected by COVID-19.
When it first launched the CERB, the CRA focused on providing emergency payments quickly to the millions of Canadians who were affected by the pandemic. To achieve this, the CRA has witnessed an unprecedented mobilization of its resources to build on past successes.
The CRA has collaborated with financial industry stakeholders to implement direct deposit for businesses to facilitate issuing of CEWS payments.
On April 27, the first bank successfully transmitted direct deposit information for businesses to CRA. The Canada emergency response benefit, which was administered by the Canada Revenue Agency and Service Canada, has since provided critical financial support to over eight million Canadians. Canadians from all walks of life and employment backgrounds have been negatively affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
For this reason, the CERB was designed to apply to a wide variety of individuals, their only commonality being their inability to work because of COVID-19. Some categories of individuals who were eligible for the CERB are those who lost their jobs or had their hours reduced because of COVID-19, as well as those unable to work because they were caring for a dependant whose care was disrupted by the pandemic. Additionally, the CERB covered not only traditionally employed, but also contract workers and self-employed persons not otherwise eligible for employment insurance.
As the pandemic situation progressed, some adjustments were made to the CERB eligibility criteria to allow Canadians to take on part-time work. This allowed Canadian businesses to rehire workers on a part-time basis to ensure that Canadians could continue to put food on the table, pay their rent or mortgage, and support their families.
During the implementation of the CERB, as well as other emergency benefits like the Canada emergency wage subsidy, the government sought to get money into the hands of Canadians who were in need as quickly as possible, via direct deposit or cheque. Payments were made within 10 days in most cases.
Canadians were able to apply for the CERB through an easy web portal, an automated telephone line or a toll-free number. The CERB officially ended on September 26, 2020, but Canadians can still retroactively apply for the CERB until December 2, 2020.
The CERB, I am proud to announce, has now been replaced with three new benefits: the Canada recovery benefit, CRB; the Canada recovery sickness benefit, CRSB; and the Canada recovery caregiving benefit, CRCB. These new benefits are being administered by the Canada Revenue Agency and Canadians can apply online through the agency's “my account” or via a toll-free number.