As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to leave its impact on so many aspects of Canadians’ lives, we’ve seen the federal and provincial government step forward with a variety of programs to help us weather this storm as much as possible.
The feds have passed the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) to offer some measure of support to Canadians who have lost their job or income due to COVID-19, and they have also brought in new measures to support small businesses so that they can continue to operate during this tough time.
The province, meanwhile, has brought in its own measures to support small businesses during this time of crisis.
It’s good that we’ve had these different programs introduced so that Canadians have at least some form of income, even if it’s just $500 a week in taxable income that will end after 16 weeks. And it’s also good that businesses are going to receive some support.
But it’s also vital that it be doled out pronto and that it gets to the people who really need it.
Governments, not just those in Canada, aren’t exactly known for their expediency when it comes to delivery programs and services, including money. And they also aren’t renowned for getting the money to the people who truly need it.
Now that the CERB has been approved, the government says it will get the money to people quickly. We hope so, because the people of this country can’t wait for it to get lost in red tape.
This money also can’t wind up in the already deep pockets of CEOs, who don’t need a dime of support during this time.
And while this money is good, the feds still need to come up with something for the energy sector, because it has been suffering considerably in the past few weeks, and it will pay a big role in our economic recovery.
We’re not going to be able to build the pipelines and the refineries that we need right away, so it means the government will have to dole out funds for oil and gas workers.
We’ve speculated how tough this pandemic would be on Canadians, and now we have an answer. More than one million jobs were lost in Canada in March, according to numbers released by Statistics Canada on April 9.
The national jobless rate swelled to 7.8 per cent; in Saskatchewan, it stood at 7.3 per cent.
Some might be surprised that these numbers weren’t worse; after all, we’ve spent the past month hearing about the severity of the economic impact of COVID-19. But we have to remember the jobless numbers were for March. We all know that they’re going to be much worse when we get the April jobs data in a few weeks.
The various levels of government get the treacherous task of making sure that they have the programs in place to help Canadians: ensure that Canadians have enough money to play the bills, and find a way for businesses to stay open, if possible, and provide services to the best of their ability.
But we also have to remember that eventually banks will have to collect mortgage payments, vehicle dealerships will have to collect payments, landlords will have to receive rent and municipalities will need property taxes.
You can’t keep putting these off beyond the next few months.
We also have to remember that other areas have been hit much harder than us, including the U.S. and Europe. Our economic recovery is going to be slowed by their ability to emerge from this.
One day, life will return to some semblance of normalcy in Canada and elsewhere in the world. Hopefully most businesses will be able to open again and hopefully most Canadians will be able to return to work.
The government has a role to play in this.
But they can’t operate with a blank cheque, nor can they keep offering all these different subsidies for the long-term, or else it will be future generations of Canadians who will be forced to pay the bills.
