Mr. Speaker, the Canada emergency response benefit was a lifeline to millions of Canadians in the early days of the pandemic. Despite NDP calls for a universal program, the government chose to exclude many people living on the margins and needing help in these difficult times. The people falling through the cracks include many low-income seniors, people living with disabilities, children aging out of care and workers getting by on contract work or cash jobs. Now many of these people are being told to pay back the CERB, even though they do not have the means.
The measures announced by the government just two weeks ago simply do not solve the problem for many Canadians experiencing poverty. This is a group that includes a disproportionately high number of women and racialized Canadians. We want to see Canadians supported all the way through this pandemic and come out in one piece on the other side. We will not get there without offering a CERB repayment amnesty to low-income Canadians still struggling to get by.
The government has wrongly turned a blind eye to corporate abuses of the wage subsidy. The least it can do is show a similar sympathy where it is actually warranted, which is to those Canadians who need help the most.