Trudeau on CERB
The Prime Minister announced this morning that his government intends to cover every Canadian who is looking for work with a better Employment Insurance system. He also made it clear there would be no increase to EI premiums during what Justin Trudeau termed “these challenging times.”
Trudeau says the goal is to transition everyone on the CERB to Employment Insurance because he says EI should cover every Canadian who is looking for work.
Trudeau also indicated that gig or contract workers will have a transitional, parallel benefit similar to EI. There will also be a sickness and caregivers benefit for Canadians not covered by work if they get COVID-19, or if their kids or parents get the virus, and they have to take care of them.
In addition, the Prime Minister announced Friday morning that the Canada Emergency Rent Assistance Program, which can make it possible to reduce a small business’s rent by 75%, has been extended for the month of August.
Trudeau on APP
The Prime Minister says the COVID Alert App is ready to download through your app store. Justin Trudeau says right now it is connected to the Ontario health system but other provinces are expected to join soon.The app will let you know if you’ve been in contact with someone who also has the app and has tested positive for COVID-19. Trudeau says the federal government worked with the Government of Ontario, Blackberry and Shopify volunteers to create the COVID Alert App and it won’t collect your personal data.
Trudeau Answers Questions About WE
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told the House Finance Committee hearings that he pulled the proposal from the cabinet agenda on May 8th that would have introduced the WE charity as the organization to handle an over $900-million student grant program, and he reiterated that today (Fri).
Trudeau says the ethics commissioner had already cleared his wife’s unpaid work with the charity and her travel expenses but he wanted extra due diligence to make sure WE was the right organization to do the job, made independently of connections.
In hindsight he says he should have recused himself, but instead he asked the public service to make sure WE was the only organization that could carry this out, so with their recommendation, he allowed it to go to Cabinet.
