{"id":17946,"date":"2020-04-03T10:00:11","date_gmt":"2020-04-03T14:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.benefitscanada.com\/news\/coronavirus-emergency-response-benefit-doesnt-go-far-enough-say-gig-workers-144712"},"modified":"2020-04-03T10:00:11","modified_gmt":"2020-04-03T14:00:11","slug":"coronavirus-emergency-response-benefit-doesnt-go-far-enough-say-gig-workers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/2020\/04\/03\/coronavirus-emergency-response-benefit-doesnt-go-far-enough-say-gig-workers\/","title":{"rendered":"Coronavirus emergency response benefit doesn\u2019t go far enough, say gig workers"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Kelsey Rolfe<\/span> | April 3, 2020 <\/p>\n

Alexander Kurth is planning to apply for the new Canada Emergency Response Benefit<\/a> once the application is available on Monday. But despite being a gig economy worker who wouldn\u2019t be able to receive employment insurance, it\u2019s only because of a timing coincidence that he qualifies for the new support at all.<\/p>\n

Toronto-based Kurth is nearing the end of a two-week quarantine period after returning from travel outside of the country. His work doing live sound for bands at music venues and as a bartender for a craft brewery was wiped out by the coronavirus-related business closures. And, while he\u2019s confined to his apartment, his other occasional gigs as a courier for Uber Technologies Ltd. and Foodora are on hold.<\/p>\n

Read: Feds adding $2,000 benefit for Canadians out of work due to coronavirus<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

The CERB will provide $2,000 per month for up to four months to Canadians who\u2019ve lost their income due to the coronavirus pandemic, retroactive to March 15. It applies to wage earners as well as contract workers and the self-employed \u2014 who wouldn\u2019t qualify for EI \u2014 and to Canadians who are still employed but aren\u2019t receiving income because of work disruptions.<\/p>\n

However, the benefit only applies to people who have lost all of their income \u2014 not just a portion of it. To apply, people must show they haven\u2019t had any work for a period of two weeks.<\/p>\n

\u201c[The benefit] works out for me personally, but I know I\u2019m in a unique position that way. I can prove I haven\u2019t made any money for the past two weeks, but that\u2019s just coincidental,\u201d says Kurth, referring to his recent travels.<\/p>\n

Kurth and other contract workers and freelancers say the structuring of the CERB fundamentally misunderstands the gig economy. While many contract workers, freelancers and self-employed Canadians will see much of their income dry up due to the coronavirus, they\u2019ll likely still be able to string together some work, but not nearly as much as before.<\/p>\n

Read: Feds introduce 75% wage subsidy to help employers keep staff during coronavirus<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cVery few people working in the gig economy have just one full-time job. Everybody\u2019s cobbling together a couple of hours from this job, a couple of hours from that job \u2014 and most of it\u2019s been wiped out. But if you\u2019re only working 25 per cent of what you were working before . . . obviously that\u2019s not viable,\u201d says Kurth, who plans to return to courier work once his quarantine ends on April 4.<\/p>\n

As well, people need to have a social insurance number in order to receive CERB payments, which is an added barrier. \u201cI know there\u2019s quite a few people who maybe do not have the official status they need in order to have a SIN number,\u201d he says. \u201cThose people are still workers, they\u2019re still in Canada, they still need to pay their bills and put food on the table.\u201d<\/p>\n

Robert Hiltz, a Montreal-based freelance journalist, also has concerns. Hiltz normally writes for a mining magazine, pens a twice-a-month politics column and does some additional communications work. While he says he has more work on his plate now than is normal, he doesn\u2019t expect that to last as publications exhaust their freelance budgets and corporate clients stop spending money on communications projects. If that happens, he\u2019d have to give up whatever work he does have left in order to qualify for the benefit. \u201cIt\u2019s essentially incentivizing me not to work if things start to get a little bad.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read: Feds introduce $82 billion in coronavirus emergency support for workers, businesses<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s also not clear how invoices that are paid weeks or months after they were submitted will affect workers\u2019 ability to receive the benefit. \u201cAt this point, the way the thing seems designed, there\u2019s no room for any of these problems,\u201d says Hiltz. \u201cThere\u2019s no room for the sort of weird and flexible pay schedule and life a freelancer lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

He was initially hopeful when he heard about the benefit, because it was rare for a government to acknowledge freelancers and contract workers. \u201cIn my years as a freelancer, I\u2019ve never seen any government really looking out for freelance writers or gig economy workers. So, I\u2019m not really surprised that this benefit doesn\u2019t take us into account in any serious way, but I kind of hoped for better.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a Thursday press conference, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau acknowledged that the benefit won\u2019t cover everyone. \u201cWe know there are many vulnerable people who won\u2019t be able to access this support who will need extra help. We\u2019re making sure we\u2019re flowing funds through shelters, through non-profits and charitable organizations as well, but there will always be more to do to make sure everyone, particularly our most vulnerable, are able to keep themselves safe and keep our communities safe by being able to do the right thing and have the support.\u201d<\/p>\n

The government is \u201clooking at ways to help everyone in Canada that needs it,\u201d he said, adding that the CERB and the 75 per cent wage subsidy<\/a> for employers will help millions of Canadians.<\/p>\n

Read: Ontario establishes tax deferrals, special payments to support employers, workers<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Paul Leroux is one self-employed Canadian who will benefit from the CERB. As the owner of LPA Sound Services, an audio-visual sole proprietorship that specializes in live-music events, he has seen all of his scheduled events fall through until at least August as venues have been closed and large gatherings banned.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody is hit, though,\u201d he says. \u201cEverybody in my industry has lost every job they had, because they\u2019re all freelance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leroux says he typically has one to six full event productions per month, ranging from $2,000 to $6,000 each, and up to a dozen hourly paid gigs where a venue hires his services. On top of concerns about paying rent and making ends meet, he also has regular business costs \u2014 insurance and storage for his equipment, as well as fees and more.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, $2,000 is not going to cover the losses of my business . . . but it was a relief to hear about CERB,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019m still a little worried, but it gave me some hope that I could survive it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Find out more about the Canada Emergency Response Benefit here<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Read the full article at BenefitsCanada.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kelsey Rolfe | April 3, 2020 Alexander Kurth is planning to apply for the new Canada Emergency Response Benefit once the application is available on Monday. But despite being a gig economy worker who wouldn\u2019t be able...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17946"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17946"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17946\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}