Tuesday April 7, 2020 ~ VANCOUVER ISLAND
by Mary Brooke, editor ~ West Shore Voice News
The federal NDP is doubling down on pressuring the federal government regarding the many cracks that people are falling between with the federal supports that are presumably to be helping all Canadians during COVID-19.
Good on NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh for persisting with this point. His letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau today asked for removal of income means-testing from financial supports to Canadians during the infectious pandemic.
A significant number of people are not eligible for financial supports under either EI or CERB, including many who are self-employed, gig economy workers, post-secondary students who did not yet have a summer job lined up, and others.
That’s not because they haven’t been paying into EI out of negligence — they haven’t been included in the ‘system’ for a long time … alas, how tone-deaf financial leadership in Ottawa has been for at least a decade which the economy has struggled and branched out in ways that perhaps seemed quirky to the mainstream but were essential for people who didn’t fit comfortably into the corporate machine.
In the COVID-19 support mechanisms that the Liberal government has — let’s give them credit — trying to roll out as best they can, there is still the caveat or qualifier of income means-testing (instead of just supporting everyone), at a time with the added stress of applications, forms, dealing with banks, etc is certainly not helpful.
This approach by the Liberal government shows at least two things: that they haven’t truly recognized that small business is fundamental (and the gig economy being a cousin to that out of necessity in a post-Recession failing economic model), and they truly don’t instinctively understand the real impact of this pandemic on every single person in the country. To their credit, they are listening, but it’s starkly evident that in having to hear basic truths on how to appropriately respond during an emergency they are demonstrating just how very far and wide the wealth gap has become in Canada.
In a grave but very real way, we can be ‘thankful’ for the pandemic that has pulled back the curtain to show that the leaders of Rome were fiddling while the country burned. At least now, we can possibly put out the worst of the fire before everything collapses.
The mean-testing of Canadians in order to qualify for support at a time when everyone’s lives have hit a brick wall implies an attitude that people will cheat on the system in even their darkest hour. And that further implies that the Liberal government leadership does not fully appreciate the impact of pandemic conditions on Canadians.
There is stress and distress on everyone as individuals and on their point of contact with or impact upon the economy, while also dealing with the sudden jolt to human relationships both inside and outside the home. This is not a time to ask a population in duress to line up in the their economic lanes. Especially as the lanes are now quite suddenly and forever obsolete.
Whatever new economy emerges post-COVID-19 will be something quite different from what we have suddenly been forced to leave behind. At this point we are in the dark tunnel on the way to somewhere new. The changes to the economy have come without warning, and there is no turning back to retrieve those things that have been lost in the sudden flood. Forward together, it’s not just a good slogan it’s the only way to be as a human during tragedy as we head toward the brighter side.
It’s time for the federal government financial decision-makers to discard their ingrained attitude of distrust that is blazing out with gnarly teeth and a blinding flash from the morass of online application trails and roadblocks that almost every Canadian adult (and including teens and post-secondary students who are still left out on the fringe) has been trying to work through in recent days and weeks.
Hopefully the mean-spirited and class-based attitude that is interwoven in the means-testing of income at at time like this is now completely eradicated from the social safety net of Canada’s financial and tax system going forward, after COVID-19. In the meantime, hopefully the next session in the House of Commons (probably next week) will see elimination of all barriers to economic survival for individuals and businesses. Hopefully all you need now is to be Canadian, with a bank account to which CRA direct deposit has been set up (which most Canadians have already in place, regardless of income). Afterall, “a Canadian, is a Canadian, is a Canadian”, as Trudeau has said many a time.
Once there is a vaccine for COVID-19, only then will our society and economy move forward with some sense of safety and stability (including all its component parts both human and institutional). That includes the thawing and hopefully retrieval of dreams flustered, relationships put on hold, families held apart (or jammed together), businesses stopped in their tracks or tipped on their ear in strange modes of urgent operation. Once the health emergency is fully dealt with we have a chance to rebuild.
Public health professionals tell us it could take 18 to 24 months to have an vaccine that is injection-ready for the public. There is lab work to do, testing to be done, then production and distribution in time for the next respiratory flu season. Very likely the earliest that can be expected for that is the fall of 2021.
Meanwhile, as Canadians we have every right to feel cared for appropriately — for our earthy needs — by the only caregiver than can be truly constant at such a time, and that is our federal government (with provincial governments interfacing). Anyone who is lucky enough to be in a town or municipality whose leaders go the extra mile for compassion and support will also have that.
But the buck stops with federal leadership at the top. With open ears and a responsive heart, there already has been progress… in response to two initiatives articulated by the NDP, i.e. worker wage subsidy to employers moved up to 75% from 10%, and pinning the CERB amount at $2,000 per person (actually for four months if one qualifies).
All eyes are on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau now, to steer the COVID-10 ship away from the iceberg of Canadian social rebellion. That is not a politically biased statement, it is a point of fact.
And it is a welcome fact. Not many political leaders today could take on this onerous task of leading a nation through its darkest hour (of modern technological times) with the aplomb and dignity that Justin Trudeau has. This will ultimately be his finest hour amidst our collective darkest hour in this early segment of the 21st century.
And on this holy religious period coming up (for those who observe Easter, Passover or Ramadan), what better time to support all of our leaders in the important work they now do for us in their roles as servants of the people.
==== RELATED:
Queen Elizabeth II delivers message of hope and a call for resolve (April 5, 2020)