Justin Trudeau says federal support programs for people and businesses affected by the COVID-19 pandemic will continue.

The Prime Minister also says those programs will change as the economic and employment situation change while we emerge from the pandemic. He says more and more people will be going back to work, and more companies will choose to take the wage subsidy and therefore people will be leaving the Canadian Emergency Response Benefit to get onto that.

There is concern that some people have been misusing the aid packages such as taking both the CERB and the wage subsidy. He says those people will simply have to pay back the one that they shouldn’t have taken. Trudeau says they aren’t interested in punishing people who made honest mistakes. He says those who deliberately take advantage of the system will be punished.

The Prime Minister was asked about how the government would pay off a projected debt of $260 billion dollars, racked up by the response to COVID-19. At his daily COVID-19 briefing, he said the government will have to look carefully at how it will remain fiscally responsible. But Trudeau says the best thing to focus on is ensuring that Canadians can come back from the pandemic, get back to work, and reopen businesses.Trudeau thinks, with interest rates low, the debt servicing cost on $260 billion will also be low.

[cjgx june 9 2020]