tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/cerb-85931/articlesCERB – The Conversation2024-01-29T18:13:40Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2215652024-01-29T18:13:40Z2024-01-29T18:13:40ZChild poverty is on the rise in Canada, putting over 1 million kids at risk of life-long negative effects<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/571536/original/file-20240125-19-ibw47t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=221%2C0%2C6488%2C4466&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Poverty reduction has the potential to initiate a beneficial cascade that would improve the lives of children and youth.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/child-poverty-is-on-the-rise-in-canada-putting-over-1-million-kids-at-risk-of-life-long-negative-effects" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>At first glance, Canada ranks among the top third of countries for its work in addressing child poverty. But that isn’t the whole story.</p>
<p>Based on current rates of and overall progress in reducing child poverty, the latest <a href="https://www.unicef.ca/en/unicef-report-card-18">UNICEF report card</a> ranks Canada 11th out of 39 of the world’s wealthiest countries. Initially, it seems Canada is doing well; between 2012 and 2021, child poverty fell by 23 per cent. </p>
<p>In reality, since 2021, the number of children living in <a href="https://www.unicef.org/globalinsight/media/3291/file/UNICEF-Innocenti-Report-Card-18-Child-Poverty-Amidst-Wealth-2023.pdf">monetary poverty</a> has <a href="https://www.unicef.ca/sites/default/files/2023-12/UNICEFReport%20Card18CanadianSummary.pdf">sharply risen from 15.2 per cent in 2020 to 17.8 per cent in 2021</a>, and more than <a href="https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/canada-still-in-the-middle-of-high-income-countries-on-child-poverty-new-unicef-report-852057195.html">one million Canadian children</a> live in poverty today. </p>
<p>This means that one in five children live in persistent fear and stress, face barriers to having their basic needs met, such as stable housing and nutritious food, and experience a lack of opportunity, including access to quality early childhood experiences. As a child psychologist and a health economist, we know that the consequences of child poverty are lifelong and are worth prioritizing.</p>
<p>We know that <a href="https://www.nccp.org/publication/childhood-and-intergenerational-poverty/">poverty persists</a>, generation by generation. This is why, although Canada ranks in the top third of countries, we shouldn’t lose sight of our reality. Canada is presently experiencing rising <a href="https://theconversation.com/an-economist-explains-what-you-need-to-know-about-inflation-188959">inflation</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/heres-how-the-bank-of-canadas-interest-rate-hike-to-5-will-impact-canadian-households-209369">interest rates</a>, both driving the cost of living crisis and the increase in child poverty rates. And while the economy continues to place constraints on all Canadians, it has a magnifying effect on those most vulnerable, including children. </p>
<h2>Building a solid foundation for the future</h2>
<p>Child poverty is a pernicious childhood adversity that has detrimental long-term impacts on children’s health, development and well-being throughout life. Children living in poverty have lower <a href="https://doi.org/10.2307/1602387">academic outcomes</a>, including school readiness and academic achievement, than financially better-off children. Poverty is also a risk factor for behavioural and emotional difficulties. </p>
<p>These educational and social gaps are associated with chronic stress that persists over time, leading to lower earning potential, poorer health and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1604756114">poorer well-being</a>. Poverty, including income loss, housing insecurity and material hardship, is also <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/car.2795">strongly associated</a> with abuse and neglect, which are known toxic stressors for children and youth. </p>
<p>Poverty reduction has the potential to initiate a beneficial cascade that would improve the lives of children and youth. Taken together, addressing child poverty has the potential to put children on a more optimal developmental course and reduce their risk for poor outcomes. </p>
<h2>Balancing today’s needs with tomorrow’s</h2>
<p>Between 2012 and 2021, Canada made great strides in addressing child poverty. In 2016, the <a href="https://www.thestar.com/business/canada-child-benefit-payments-to-increase-this-month-for-many-families-here-s-how-much/article_1b689540-3a7b-5cd0-aa11-8f1855455c54.html">Canada Child Benefit (CCB)</a> was introduced as a monthly tax-free supplement for eligible families to support the cost of raising children. Families in low to middle-income households benefited the most; the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1086/721379">CCB reduced poverty</a> by 11 per cent in single-parent families and 17 per cent in two-parent families. </p>
<p>The Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) program provided additional temporary relief for eligible individuals during the <a href="https://nationalpost.com/news/politics/pandemic-benefits-reduced-child-poverty-government-should-build-on-success-report">COVID-19 pandemic</a>. And, in recent years, the minimum wage has also increased for Canadians. </p>
<p>Although there is evidence that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2022.02.011">monetary interventions</a>, such as cash transfers, help reduce mental health symptoms among youth experiencing poverty, there remains <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/9999605/minimum-wage-hikes-cost-of-living-advocates/">debate</a> on whether these increases have helped families overcome challenges to the cost of living. </p>
<p>Furthermore, the CERB, provided during the pandemic, has now been discontinued, increasing the hardship among Canadian families. Until families are provided with adequate support, the reality is Canada may continue experiencing a rise in rates of child poverty with significant cascading effects.</p>
<h2>Long-term payoffs of addressing child poverty</h2>
<p>Addressing child poverty has long-term payoffs. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1257/pol.3.3.175">Child benefit programs</a> in Canada have been shown to positively affect children’s educational attainment and improve mothers’ health and mental health. These improvements can subsequently lead to improved health and mental health among children, which reduces long-term public costs. </p>
<p>In addition to being a <a href="https://www.un.org/development/desa/en/news/social/poverty-is-denial-of-childrens-rights.html">human rights issue</a>, addressing child poverty makes <a href="https://doi.org/10.1503%2Fcmaj.69470">economic sense</a>. This is why addressing child poverty needs to remain a priority for all Canadians. Governments, employers and communities must partner to reduce the risk of poverty. They can do this by:</p>
<ol>
<li>Adopting a national <a href="https://www.livingwage.ca/">living wage</a> policy, where the hourly minimum wage supports the cost of living in Canadian communities. </li>
<li>Reducing <a href="https://proof.utoronto.ca/food-insecurity/">food insecurity</a> by enhancing access to nutritional food through nationally available school food programs. </li>
<li>Increasing school readiness by providing universal access to <a href="https://www.unicef.org/eca/press-releases/investing-ECD-essential-children">quality early childhood development</a> programs across Canada.</li>
</ol>
<h2>Some are more at risk than others</h2>
<p>In its <a href="https://www.unicef.ca/en/unicef-report-card-18">report card</a>, UNICEF identified single-parent families, families living in Indigenous communities, and families with racialized or disabled children as being at higher risk of poverty. These risks come with cascading health, social and justice <a href="https://doi.org/10.1503%2Fcmaj.171508">consequences</a>. Further multidimensional and targeted approaches are needed to support families that are more severely affected. </p>
<p>The Government of Canada has a legislated target to <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/employment-social-development/programs/agenda-2030/poverty.html">reduce poverty by at least 50 per cent</a> relative to 2015 levels by 2030 in line with the Sustainable Development Goals. </p>
<p>As we saw before the pandemic, it is possible to reduce child poverty in Canada. However, unless the impact of the current economic climate on families is considered and suitably responded to, Canada may continue experiencing a rise in rates of child poverty, putting our collective future at risk. Canada can do better, and we should do better for our kids.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/221565/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nicole Racine receives funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, the University of Ottawa, and holds a Chair in Child and Youth Mental Health at the Children's Hospital of Easter Ontario Research Institute. She sits on the Board of Trustees for Strong Minds Strong Kids, Psychology Foundation of Canada. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Shainur Premji receives funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, and the National Institute for Health and Care Research.</span></em></p>Over one million Canadian children live in poverty. Child poverty is a pernicious childhood adversity that has detrimental long-term impacts on health, development and well-being throughout life.Nicole Racine, Assistant professor, School of Psychology, Scientist, Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario Research Institute, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of OttawaShainur Premji, Research Fellow, Centre for Health Economics, University of YorkLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1993912023-02-20T16:13:53Z2023-02-20T16:13:53ZPandemic finger-pointing: New research sheds light on who Canadians blame in times of crisis<p>A little over a year ago, thousands of people descended on Ottawa protesting COVID-19 pandemic countermeasures as part of a “<a href="https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/2172464195743">freedom convoy</a>.” </p>
<p>They contested the science around vaccines, chanted and held signs condemning the Trudeau government. A key theme of the protest movement was anger directed toward the government, scientists and even ordinary people following public health recommendations. </p>
<p>During periods of social, political and economic crisis, blame functions as a particularly <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0038038507074979">powerful emotion</a>. It helps people and groups make sense of uncertainty, place fault or, in some cases, provide help. </p>
<p>Blame also plays a role in colouring public trust in government. It can drive expectations around <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/casp.2487">policymaking and political responsiveness</a>. </p>
<p>Throughout the pandemic, blame loomed large in press reports and public conversations, culminating in the convoy’s head-to-head with Ottawa’s politicians and police. </p>
<h2>Pandemic blame</h2>
<p>Even now, as most <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/public-health/news/2022/09/government-of-canada-to-remove-covid-19-border-and-travel-measures-effective-october-1.html">pandemic-related restrictions have been lifted</a>, the blame game continues to fuel contention. Its most recent iteration involves frustrations about alleged abuse of the <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/benefits/apply-for-cerb-with-cra.html">Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB)</a> prompted by the <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-morning-update-billions-of-covid-19-benefits-went-to-ineligible/">recent auditor general report</a>.</p>
<p>The report indicates that approximately $27.4 billion of pandemic aid went to ineligible people confirming, for some, that CERB was flagrantly abused and they were right to be skeptical about the program.</p>
<p>The convoy protest entrenched an already stark divide between Canadians who supported pandemic restrictions, public health measures and economic supports, and those who distrusted and challenged them. </p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/00380385221137181">In our study</a> based on in-depth interviews with 50 Canadians of different ages and with different disabilities and chronic health conditions conducted in summer and fall of 2020, we found that accusations and blame abounded. </p>
<p>Blame for COVID-19’s spread was, for example, levied against vaccine resistors and people who refused to comply with pandemic-related restrictions. The term “<a href="https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/covidiot">covidiots</a>” was used to set irresponsible or, worse still, willfully reckless Canadians apart from their virtuous counterparts.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/510718/original/file-20230216-18-vsxvyl.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A pick up truck drives passed people carrying signs that read: truck off, go home." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/510718/original/file-20230216-18-vsxvyl.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/510718/original/file-20230216-18-vsxvyl.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510718/original/file-20230216-18-vsxvyl.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510718/original/file-20230216-18-vsxvyl.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510718/original/file-20230216-18-vsxvyl.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=496&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510718/original/file-20230216-18-vsxvyl.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=496&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510718/original/file-20230216-18-vsxvyl.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=496&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Ottawa residents staged counter-protests calling on those participating in the convoy to go home.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Even those who sought or received CERB were taken to task by our interviewees. There was a feeling that CERB payments had been distributed haphazardly and often to people with no real need of them. </p>
<p>In short, people were assumed to be “scamming” the system. Young people were treated with a uniquely strong sense of suspicion, accused of relying on CERB instead of “working harder.”</p>
<p>This isn’t altogether surprising. People are trying to make sense of others’ attitudes and behaviours by drawing distinctions around who is to blame and why. </p>
<h2>Perceptions of pandemic behaviour, support</h2>
<p>Canadians found two main ways to place blame while distinguishing themselves from those they perceived to be morally corrupt. </p>
<p>The first was based on health vulnerabilities. Respondents contrasted the inconsiderate and selfish behaviour of people who do not take precautions with the actions of people with disabilities, the elderly and people with health conditions who needed to take extra precautions. </p>
<p>For example, one of our respondents told us she had “become really judgmental… If I am out in the mask and someone walks by and doesn’t have one, it’s like, you’re giving them the death stare, you know?” </p>
<p>Another told us it was a moral duty to socially distance, wear a mask and stay home when necessary. Those who didn’t were described as reckless.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/510719/original/file-20230216-24-rkesm0.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="a man at a demonstration holds a Canadian flag and a sign that reads: Axe the vax." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/510719/original/file-20230216-24-rkesm0.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/510719/original/file-20230216-24-rkesm0.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510719/original/file-20230216-24-rkesm0.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510719/original/file-20230216-24-rkesm0.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510719/original/file-20230216-24-rkesm0.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510719/original/file-20230216-24-rkesm0.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510719/original/file-20230216-24-rkesm0.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An anti-vax mandate protest at Western University after the university introduced a vaccine mandate policy.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nicole Osborne</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The other dimension of blame had to do with who people thought was economically deserving of government supports. Respondents were especially critical of young people and others who they thought just “refused to work” and “took advantage” of “handouts.” </p>
<p>As one of our respondents said, “I’m starting to get upset with the amount of money he’s [Prime Minister Justin Trudeau] starting to throw out now. It’s just getting way out of control … and everybody now is putting out their hands saying, ‘what that one got, I want.’”</p>
<p>Blame informs Canadians’ understanding of the pandemic, and certainly, the blame game has evolved alongside changing restrictions, economic policies, and public safety guidelines.</p>
<p>For many, it’s a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.35.5.351">strategy for managing crisis</a>. Blame helps us make sense of our surroundings and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1086/681591">mitigate frustration</a>. The trucker convoy represented a more visible and dramatic manifestation of frustration, but its roots run deep. </p>
<p>The idea that elite establishments are suspicious, that some people are more privileged than others, that some are undeserving and lazy, that they abuse welfare and don’t take responsibility for their health are not new. </p>
<p>As the convoy protest anniversary slips out of view, it’s important to pay close attention to what’s driving grievances and just how far beyond the pandemic they extend.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/199391/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Pettinicchio receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC).</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michelle Maroto receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC).</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jordan Foster does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Examining how and why we cast blame on others can help us understand the convoy protests and the different ways people reacted to pandemic restrictions.Jordan Foster, PhD Candidate, Sociology, University of TorontoDavid Pettinicchio, Associate Professor, Sociology, University of TorontoMichelle Maroto, Associate Professor of Sociology, University of AlbertaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1928322022-11-08T17:38:19Z2022-11-08T17:38:19ZCompassion has won out when it comes to Canadian support for COVID-19 financial aid<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/492804/original/file-20221101-12-ie82g5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=1089%2C0%2C2276%2C2224&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A florist hands a curbside order to a customer during the Valentine's Day rush in Almonte, Ont., in February 2021.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/compassion-has-won-out-when-it-comes-to-canadian-support-for-covid-19-financial-aid" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>Most of us would rather not rehash our experiences from the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. Nonetheless, for many this worldwide health crisis remains top of mind and continues to factor into everyday decision-making. </p>
<p>The pandemic taught us a lot about ourselves: how much risk we can tolerate, what we believe on questions of individualism versus community and our preferences about how to redistribute resources across society. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1108/IJSSP-07-2022-0184">Our research</a> reveals that even though we may be divided in our experiences and our political affiliation, we can become united in times of threat.</p>
<p>Extensive lockdown measures and perceived risk of infection were each routinely positioned in the media <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2020.113429">as threats to physical and mental well-being</a>. But beyond health concerns, the pandemic also cast light on the vulnerability of individual and household finances. </p>
<p>The federal government was quick to respond by implementing the <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/services/benefits/ei/cerb-application.html">Canada Emergency Response Benefit</a>
(CERB) and the <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/benefits/emergency-student-benefit.html">Canada Emergency Student Benefit</a> (CESB) along with <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/department-finance/services/publications/economic-fiscal-snapshot/overview-economic-response-plan.html">other direct financial policy measures</a> geared towards the elderly, people with dependants and students, among others.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="A woman with short blond hair and glasses sits behind a placard that reads 'supporting canadians for a safe restart' in english and french" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/492789/original/file-20221101-12-ykkbxf.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/492789/original/file-20221101-12-ykkbxf.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492789/original/file-20221101-12-ykkbxf.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492789/original/file-20221101-12-ykkbxf.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492789/original/file-20221101-12-ykkbxf.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492789/original/file-20221101-12-ykkbxf.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492789/original/file-20221101-12-ykkbxf.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Employment Minister Carla Qualtrough listens to a question during a news conference in Ottawa in August 2020.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>These initiatives were controversial. <a href="https://www.macleans.ca/politics/ottawa/pulling-off-a-bureaucratic-miracle-how-the-cerb-got-done/">While many praised</a> the government’s efforts to support Canadians, <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/6804097/canada-basic-income-policy/">others argued</a> that the CERB and related financial supports were inadequate. </p>
<p>In contrast, some conservative leaders and pundits criticized the <a href="https://www.thestar.com/opinion/contributors/2020/12/03/otoole-takes-aim-at-liberals-and-cerb-for-endangering-canadas-work-ethic.html">CERB for its negative impact on businesses</a>, declaring that employees were unnecessarily leaving minimum wage jobs to receive the CERB and other benefits.</p>
<p>Pundits aside, understanding Canadians’ responses to these changes in government support can tell us something about how members of society evaluate their own financial concerns as well as those of their neighbours in a time of financial need.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/covid-19-has-been-much-harder-on-those-who-already-had-anxiety-and-financial-issues-157289">COVID-19 has been much harder on those who already had anxiety and financial issues</a>
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<h2>Support for government assistance</h2>
<p>In June 2020, we collected survey data to establish whether people’s concern for their own or for others’ financial well-being — or both — would drive support for policies that supported government financial aid.</p>
<p>We asked respondents to rate whether they thought the federal government had done a good job handling the financial aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic, citing CERB and CESB as examples of these efforts.</p>
<p>Our analysis showed that those who expressed concern for the financial well-being of others were more likely to approve of the federal government’s handling of the financial aspects of the pandemic.</p>
<p>By contrast, people’s concerns about their own financial struggles had no effect on whether they approved of the federal government’s actions. </p>
<p>In other words, people were more likely to support the federal government’s helping hand if they recognized other people were dealing with financial struggles, no matter their own economic situation. This was regardless of political affiliation.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="A laptop screen shows the CERB application web page." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/492799/original/file-20221101-22-ky1qa3.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/492799/original/file-20221101-22-ky1qa3.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492799/original/file-20221101-22-ky1qa3.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492799/original/file-20221101-22-ky1qa3.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492799/original/file-20221101-22-ky1qa3.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492799/original/file-20221101-22-ky1qa3.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492799/original/file-20221101-22-ky1qa3.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Many Canadians were forced to apply for government income support when the COVID-19 pandemic hit.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Since CERB and other associated measures may have been tied to existing support for the Liberal government, we also asked participants about their attitudes on a broader range of government interventions, such as education support as well as credit and mortgage relief.</p>
<p>As a country that has <a href="https://www.ontario.ca/page/ontario-basic-income-pilot">experimented with universal basic income (UBI) measures</a>, but <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/basic-income-pilot-project-ford-cancel-1.4771343">never fully bought in</a>, we were also curious about whether the pandemic may have created the conditions for citizens to support UBI in Canada. </p>
<p>We found that people’s own financial struggles as well as their concerns for others drove support for these policies — even after controlling for other factors like income and political affiliation. But their compassion for others had a much larger effect on support for a UBI.</p>
<h2>An opportunity for big change?</h2>
<p>Crises by definition are not “business as usual” in politics or the personal lives of citizens. They have long been <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/research/sometimes-the-world-needs-a-crisis-turning-challenges-into-opportunities/">windows of opportunity for transformational change</a>. </p>
<p>In part, this may be because they expose the weaknesses of the current political and economic infrastructure. But crises also have a profoundly human aspect to them, exposing the vulnerability of citizens who are deeply affected when these systems fail. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="Stacked chairs are seen behind glass with a sign notifying people that a food court terrace is closed." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/492801/original/file-20221101-22-ayhw09.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/492801/original/file-20221101-22-ayhw09.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=408&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492801/original/file-20221101-22-ayhw09.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=408&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492801/original/file-20221101-22-ayhw09.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=408&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492801/original/file-20221101-22-ayhw09.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=513&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492801/original/file-20221101-22-ayhw09.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=513&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492801/original/file-20221101-22-ayhw09.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=513&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A sign notifying customers of a closed terrace is shown at food court in Montréal in March 2020 as COVID-19 cases rose in Canada.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The findings from our research suggest that people’s concerns for others during a crisis may be more influential than individual needs or political affiliation in determining support for certain redistributive policies. </p>
<p>This dovetails with ongoing research on <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35082554/">social trust</a> <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8872216/">and empathy</a>. What governments do at these junctures — whether they recognize a shift in public opinion and whether that aligns with their policy preferences — is a political question. But our research suggests that, as divisive as crises can be, they can also create some cross-partisan empathy. </p>
<p>Among headlines <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/9065420/freedom-convoy-intelligence-report-revenge/">of division</a> <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/protests-politics-canadas-freedom-convoy-reverberates-2022-08-04/">and conflict</a>, expressions of concern for our fellow citizens are a refreshing silver lining on a pandemic that has not yet fully run its course.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/192832/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrea Lawlor receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Miranda Goode receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tyler Girard receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Philippe Wodnicki does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>New research suggests Canadians were more likely to support Ottawa’s COVID-19 financial aid if they recognized others were dealing with financial struggles, no matter their own economic situation.Andrea Lawlor, Associate Professor, Politics and International Relations, Western UniversityMiranda Goode, Associate Professor, Marketing, Western UniversityPhilippe Wodnicki, PhD Student in Business Administration, Western UniversityTyler Girard, Assistant Professor in Political Science, Purdue UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1902162022-09-29T19:25:23Z2022-09-29T19:25:23ZBetter income assistance programs are needed to help people with rising cost of living<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/486164/original/file-20220922-15282-7odj0v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=186%2C186%2C4791%2C3261&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Canada’s current social assistance programs are not doing enough to support Canadians.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/better-income-assistance-programs-are-needed-to-help-people-with-rising-cost-of-living" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>At the onset of the pandemic, the Canadian federal government cobbled together a series of programs to <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/department-finance/news/2020/07/economic-and-fiscal-snapshot-2020--house-speech.html">help vulnerable populations who needed support</a>. These measures included boosts to <a href="https://pm.gc.ca/en/news/news-releases/2020/05/03/families-receive-increased-support-through-canada-child-benefit">Canada Child Benefit payments</a>, the <a href="https://financialpost.com/personal-finance/taxes/the-gst-hst-credit-has-been-boosted-due-to-covid-19-heres-what-you-need-to-know">goods and services (GST) tax credit</a> and the <a href="https://pm.gc.ca/en/news/news-releases/2020/06/04/canadian-seniors-receive-special-payment-early-july">Old Age Security and Guaranteed Income Supplement</a> for seniors.</p>
<p>This choice of programs is telling in two important respects. First, they all came in the form of income-tested monthly benefits paid through the tax system. Secondly, the programs were mostly directed at families with children and seniors, with the exception of the GST credit that provides tax-free payments to individuals and families across Canada <a href="https://www.statcan.gc.ca/en/topics-start/poverty">at or below the poverty line</a>. </p>
<p>The addition of the <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/services/benefits/ei/cerb-application.html">Canada Emergency Response Benefit</a> for workers who lost significant income during the pandemic, along with liberalized eligibility rules for Employment Insurance, were necessary but still <a href="https://policyoptions.irpp.org/magazines/august-2021/redesigning-canadas-social-safety-net-for-the-post-pandemic-economy/">left large gaps in protection for others who were economically vulnerable, notably singles and couples without children</a>.</p>
<p>The provincial governments, <a href="https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/social-and-welfare-services">who are in charge of social and welfare assistance</a> in Canada, <a href="https://policyalternatives.ca/newsroom/news-releases/provinces-have-upped-their-covid-19-spending-feds-still-picking-most-tab">largely left pandemic income support to the federal government</a>. More recently, the provinces have been active in attempting to cushion the impact of rising energy prices and inflation, as federal assistance measures expire.</p>
<h2>Diversity of assistance programs</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.alberta.ca/about-fuel-tax.aspx">Alberta</a>, <a href="https://www.taxpayer.com/newsroom/furey%E2%80%99s-gas-tax-cut-helps-confront-soaring-living-costs">Newfoundland</a> and <a href="https://toronto.ctvnews.ca/ontario-government-introduces-legislation-to-temporarily-cut-gas-fuel-taxes-1.5846934">Ontario</a> have introduced temporary reductions in gas taxes, which are directed at families in general rather than those with lower incomes. <a href="https://montrealgazette.com/business/local-business/personal-finance/delean-how-quebecs-500-cost-of-living-payment-affects-tax-returns">Québec introduced a non-taxable $500 benefit</a> to taxpayers with incomes under $100,000 in 2021, with reduced payments for incomes up to $150,000. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="People walk in front of a Shell gas station sign displaying a gas price of 227.9" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/485989/original/file-20220921-15282-ptxago.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/485989/original/file-20220921-15282-ptxago.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=405&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485989/original/file-20220921-15282-ptxago.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=405&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485989/original/file-20220921-15282-ptxago.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=405&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485989/original/file-20220921-15282-ptxago.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485989/original/file-20220921-15282-ptxago.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485989/original/file-20220921-15282-ptxago.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Reductions in gas taxes in Alberta, Newfoundland and Ontario are aimed at families that own cars, rather than those with lower incomes.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In 2021, <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/manitoba-family-affordability-package-cheques-1.6568070">Manitoba provided families with household incomes under $175,000</a> a $250 benefit for their first child and $200 for each additional child. They also provided $300 benefits for senior households with incomes under $40,000 who claimed the education property tax credit in 2021, or received provincial Employment and Income Assistance. </p>
<p><a href="https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/family-social-supports/affordability/cost-living">British Columbia is quadrupling the fourth quarter federal Climate Action Tax Credit</a>, which is based on net income and family size. There is clearly a vast diversity of social assistance programs at both the federal and provincial levels — but are they enough to help those in need?</p>
<h2>Building assistance programs</h2>
<p>Underlying these government programs is a historic framework that comes down to three principles: benefit coverage, government generosity, and tapering or reducing the benefits based on income.</p>
<p>In Canada, most social assistance programs are limited or conditional, meaning recipients must meet certain criteria to receive support. Programs tend to be geared toward seniors, families with children and <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/child-family-benefits/canada-workers-benefit.html">working age adults with imposed employment conditions</a>. While universal coverage <a href="https://pubs.aeaweb.org/doi/pdfplus/10.1257/089533003769204380">has been around since 1962</a>, it <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2020/2/19/21112570/universal-basic-income-ubi-map">has never gone beyond the experimental stage in North America</a>. </p>
<p>The distribution of income assistance often comes down to the question of who in need of help will actually receive support. In other words, these programs depend on generosity: Who is and is not deserving of coverage? This generosity depends both on the fiscal capacity of governments and their willingness to devote resources to the assistance of those in need. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A middle age caregiver sitting and reading on a bench beside an elderly woman, presumably her client. The caregiver's face is in focus. The elderly woman is slightly blurred." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/486162/original/file-20220922-34664-4sn0xe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/486162/original/file-20220922-34664-4sn0xe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486162/original/file-20220922-34664-4sn0xe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486162/original/file-20220922-34664-4sn0xe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486162/original/file-20220922-34664-4sn0xe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486162/original/file-20220922-34664-4sn0xe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486162/original/file-20220922-34664-4sn0xe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Most social assistance programs in Canada are oriented toward elderly people and families with children.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It’s clear that <a href="https://maytree.com/wp-content/uploads/Welfare_in_Canada_2020.pdf">current federal and provincial income support falls short of Canada’s official poverty line</a>, now enshrined under the <a href="https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/P-16.81/page-1.html">Poverty Reduction Act</a>. This is especially significant for non-elderly adults without children who do not receive federal child or seniors benefits.</p>
<p>The effectiveness of social programs also depends on how they are tapered. Tapering refers to the way benefits are distributed to program recipients. Tapering on the basis of family income has been a hallmark of Canadian income supports since the early proposals for a guaranteed basic income, with lower income families receiving larger amounts of benefits for a given financial outlay. </p>
<p>Tapering characterizes the main federal income support programs and was <a href="https://www.poltext.org/sites/poltext.org/files/plateformesV2/Canada/CAN_PL_2015_LIB_en.pdf">explicit in the reasoning behind the current Canada Child Benefit</a> that replaced the <a href="https://www.budget.gc.ca/efp-peb/2014/uccb-puge-eng.html">Universal Child Care Benefit</a>. However, the benefit is not tapered enough — it <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/programs/about-canada-revenue-agency-cra/federal-government-budgets/budget-2016-growing-middle-class/canada-child-benefit.html">guarantees families with incomes up to $200,000 receive benefits</a>. This limited tapering means those with the greatest need get less than they might otherwise.</p>
<h2>Better support for Canadians</h2>
<p>It’s clear that Canada’s current income assistance programs are not doing enough to support Canadians. Canadians are <a href="https://policyoptions.irpp.org/magazines/september-2022/crowdfunding-inflation-needs/">increasingly turning to crowdfunding sites for support</a> to keep them afloat during personal and family crises.</p>
<p>If the goal of temporary assistance is to help those in need, it must have broader coverage and better tapering. <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/child-family-benefits/gsthstc-amount.html">The only program that qualifies at present is the GST credit</a>, but even these payments are modest and only delivered quarterly. </p>
<p>The federal government has just decided to <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/department-finance/news/2022/09/making-life-more-affordable-doubling-the-goods-and-services-tax-credit-for-sixmonths.html">double the GST credit for six months</a> to deliver additional relief to these low-income families, but a family of four will only receive a maximum of an additional $467 a year from this measure.</p>
<p>A more generous income assistance program should also have more frequent regular payments. Expanding the GST credit might be more helpful, but other ways to supplement or replace provincial social assistance programs, such as a <a href="https://www.policyschool.ca/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/HSP101-Research-GuaranteedBasicIncome.pdf">guaranteed basic income for working-age Canadians</a>, might provide better support for those in need.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/190216/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Wayne Simpson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Canada’s current income assistance programs are not doing enough to support Canadians. If the goal of temporary assistance is to help those in need, these programs must have better, broader coverage.Wayne Simpson, Professor, Department of Economics, University of ManitobaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1902202022-09-20T19:26:34Z2022-09-20T19:26:34ZFor Canadians with disabilities, multiple types of support were important during COVID-19<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/484400/original/file-20220913-4889-p041wh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=13%2C39%2C8661%2C5735&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Family and household resources were critical to individuals who struggled with both employment income and savings during COVID-19. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/for-canadians-with-disabilities--multiple-types-of-support-were-important-during-covid-19" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>Canadians who <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/financial-consumer-agency/corporate/covid-19/summary-covid-19-surveys.html">lost their incomes and accumulated debt during COVID-19</a> are still struggling to recover financially. Between 2019 and 2022, one-third fewer Canadians said they had an emergency fund that would cover three months of expenses.</p>
<p>The pandemic revealed gaps in <a href="https://theconversation.com/cerb-helped-canadians-during-covid-19-but-not-the-most-vulnerable-173217">how we collectively address those most vulnerable</a> in times of crisis. Many struggled with government-mandated countermeasures, from masks to social distancing to accessing PPE and vaccines. </p>
<p>The pandemic left many without work, and for those who were able to keep their jobs, the very <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/canada-return-office-wfh-fall-pandemic-1.6570575">nature of work changed drastically</a>. Some experienced reduced hours while others, including those working remotely, saw more work. Many <a href="https://www.mcgill.ca/newsroom/channels/news/covid-19-lockdowns-deepened-struggle-work-family-balance-334723">struggled to maintain a healthy work-life balance</a>, and others tried to stay financially afloat through government supports.</p>
<p>What is clear is that individuals who were in financially precarious situations before the pandemic were hit the hardest, and are now dealing with <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/newsinteractives/features/inflation-multiple-jobs-manitoba">inflation and higher costs of living</a>. <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/inflation-disability-benefits-odsp-canada-benefits-cpp-1.6427751">Canadians on fixed disability benefits</a> are among those struggling the most with high inflation.</p>
<h2>Work doesn’t guarantee liveable income</h2>
<p>Just under half of disabled Canadians were <a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/89-654-x/89-654-x2018002-eng.htm">out of work</a> before the COVID-19 pandemic, but even for those who do have jobs, employment doesn’t guarantee <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/cars.12288">a life without poverty</a>. </p>
<p>When Canadians with disabilities do work, they tend to hold <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rssm.2014.08.002">low-paying</a>, precarious, non-union jobs in the food and service sectors. It makes sense that many people with disabilities end up mobilizing other sources of income to make ends meet, including savings, family supports and government benefits.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A pair of hands counting Canadian bills on a table" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/484406/original/file-20220913-4760-wldx3k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/484406/original/file-20220913-4760-wldx3k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/484406/original/file-20220913-4760-wldx3k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/484406/original/file-20220913-4760-wldx3k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/484406/original/file-20220913-4760-wldx3k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/484406/original/file-20220913-4760-wldx3k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/484406/original/file-20220913-4760-wldx3k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">People with disabilities tend to have fewer savings than those without disabilities, leaving them in a financially precarious situation.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Based on an analysis of over 1,000 Canadians with disabilities, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/soin.12504">our new study</a> found that individuals used family, savings and government supports to supplement inadequate employment income during the pandemic. But, access to these different supports varied considerably. </p>
<p>While these supports are incredibly important for people with disabilities, many people face obstacles in accessing them in the first place. Restrictive benefits often exclude many who need them, and income support programs can keep people trapped in bad jobs.</p>
<h2>Nothing to fall back on</h2>
<p>Our study found that individuals who remained employed — especially those in good jobs — felt the most secure. But even among this more secure group, the pandemic was a wake-up call. As one person told us: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“[I]f I was to lose my job, or if anything was to happen, my savings aren’t enough to pay the bills.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>People with disabilities <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/cars.12268">have 25 per cent less in assets</a> than Canadians without disabilities, which means they can’t rely as much on rainy-day funds. </p>
<p>Many individuals tapped into their savings to make ends meet. This eased concerns for some people, but others — like those nearing retirement — worried their savings would never recover. As one respondent noted: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“All our lives we’ve put money aside for retirement and figured we had enough. But now with the economy and the stock markets and everything we’re really worried.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Most of the people we interviewed were unemployed and had to make use of a combination of resources. When they were successful at doing so, respondents expressed fewer concerns about their current and future economic insecurity. </p>
<h2>Government support was crucial</h2>
<p>Family and household resources were critical to individuals who struggled with both employment income and savings. </p>
<p>Although individuals felt more secure living with another income earner, having children in the household or having to provide resources to other family members generated concerns about economic insecurity. </p>
<p>One respondent said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“The problem is more so helping other family members that have been laid off and so forth. So that’s taken a big chunk of my savings.” </p>
</blockquote>
<p>This is why government supports were so important during the pandemic. They <a href="https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/coronavirus/stories-of-cerb-canadians-share-how-they-re-using-the-emergency-benefit-1.4931779">provided stability when jobs, savings and family weren’t enough</a>.</p>
<p>This support was crucial considering households with disabilities tend to face higher living expenses and income penalties, particularly when other household members take time off work to provide care. The Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) was an important stop-gap for many respondents who lost income during the pandemic.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="The landing page for the Canada Emergency Response Benefit is seen on a computer screen" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/484139/original/file-20220912-14-iq2myw.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/484139/original/file-20220912-14-iq2myw.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/484139/original/file-20220912-14-iq2myw.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/484139/original/file-20220912-14-iq2myw.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/484139/original/file-20220912-14-iq2myw.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/484139/original/file-20220912-14-iq2myw.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/484139/original/file-20220912-14-iq2myw.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Canada Emergency Response Benefit provided financial support to employed and self-employed Canadians who were affected by COVID-19.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Giordano Ciampini</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Disabled people who were registered with a federal <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/tax/individuals/segments/tax-credits-deductions-persons-disabilities/disability-tax-credit.html">disability tax credit</a> were 12 per cent less likely to think their financial futures would worsen. However, only 11 per cent of respondents were registered for it. </p>
<p>Similarly, while a disability tax credit is required for opening a Registered Disability Savings Plan, only 32 per cent of disabled Canadians make use of the savings plan according to a <a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/211201/dq211201c-eng.htm">recent Statistics Canada report</a>. </p>
<h2>Where does this leave us?</h2>
<p>There’s much to appreciate about Canada’s policy response to COVID-19. The country acted quickly to provide income for those losing employment and expanded a range of benefits to create additional supports. </p>
<p>These actions helped low-income workers throughout Canada, but left out those without access to the labour market. <a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/220713/dq220713d-eng.htm">Fewer than 40 per cent of disabled workers received CERB</a>, a figure that excludes all the non-workers who were ineligible. </p>
<p>The federal government’s over-reliance on the provinces to distribute benefits and support also meant that <a href="https://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2021/as-sa/98-200-X/2021005/98-200-X2021005-eng.cfm">responses to the COVID-19 pandemic varied across the country</a>. </p>
<p>This was part of a larger movement that has been <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/cars.12268">shifting economic risks and burdens</a> to individuals, emphasizing personal responsibility rather than structural inequalities. This kind of approach to policy-making is detrimental to people with disabilities who access government benefits to support their income.</p>
<p>The recent re-introduction and tabling of <a href="https://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/csj-sjc/pl/charter-charte/c22_1.html">Bill C-22</a>, which aims to create new disability benefits for working-age Canadians, is a step in the right direction. </p>
<p>The bill was <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/liberals-reintroduce-disability-benefits-bill-1.6474363">introduced by the Liberal government in June 2021</a>, but died when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called the federal election. Now, most likely in response to the public outcry about how little the federal government did for Canadians with disabilities during the pandemic, it’s back on the table. However, it has disabled Canadians wondering if it’s too little, too late.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/190220/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Pettinicchio receives funding from Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michelle Maroto receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC).</span></em></p>Supports that were crucial in helping Canadians with disabilities stay afloat during COVID-19 are no longer available, causing concern from many about their economic future.David Pettinicchio, Associate Professor, Sociology, University of TorontoMichelle Maroto, Associate Professor of Sociology, University of AlbertaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1723512021-12-13T16:18:40Z2021-12-13T16:18:40ZSex, taxes & COVID-19: How sex workers navigated pandemic relief efforts<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/435132/original/file-20211201-17-l4sg71.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C4608%2C2586&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Some tools of the trade for sex workers during the COVID-19 pandemic</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Ryan Conrad)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>As COVID-19 forced Canadians to stay home and many stop working, people across numerous sectors were confused as to which income replacement programs they were eligible for. </p>
<p>Sex workers in particular — with their <a href="http://sexworklawreform.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Executive-Summary.pdf">precarious legal status and de facto criminalization</a> — did not seem to be accounted for in any of the programs. </p>
<p>Many <a href="https://nawl.ca/canada-must-protect-the-rights-of-sex-workers-during-covid-19-by-ensuring-access-to-emergency-income-supports/">progressive organizations</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/sex-workers-are-criminalized-and-left-without-government-support-during-the-coronavirus-pandemic-141746">scholars</a> pointed out that sex workers would likely be excluded from new programs like the Canadian Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) and the revamped Employment Insurance (EI) scheme. </p>
<p>Both required claimants to have filed income tax in 2019 citing at least $5,000 worth of income. Due to the perception that <a href="https://toronto.citynews.ca/2020/04/19/sex-workers-say-theyre-at-risk-have-been-left-out-of-canadas-covid-19-response/">sex workers don’t file income taxes</a> because of stigma and fear, <a href="https://www.nswp.org/page/sex-worker-community-responses#Canada">sex worker-led emergency mutual aid funds</a> were created across Canada. </p>
<p>As members of organizations implementing these kinds of emergency economic supports for sex workers ourselves, we saw firsthand the impact COVID-19 had on their economic security. However, as time passed and income replacement programs continued to evolve, we began to question the presumption that sex workers were not accessing these programs. </p>
<h2>Our study</h2>
<p>In collaboration with <a href="https://www.powerottawa.ca/">Prostitutes of Ottawa-Gatineau Work, Educate, Resist (POWER)</a> we secured a small grant to survey sex workers in the national capital region. We created a short bilingual survey asking sex workers about their working conditions during COVID-19, their ability to access social safety net programs (new and old) and their tax filing habits. </p>
<p>We <a href="https://www.powerottawa.ca/announcements/announcing-covid-19-research-partnership-with-university-of-ottawa/">launched the survey in June 2021</a> and received 304 completed surveys over six weeks.</p>
<p>A full detailed report on our findings is forthcoming, but we wanted to share some of our preliminary results as they are timely and should inform future policy. As <a href="https://sexworklawreform.com/sex-worker-human-rights-groups-launch-constitutional-challenge/">sex workers fighting to decriminalize the industry</a> are due back before the Supreme Court at any moment and social safety net programs continue to evolve, this information needs to be shared.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A mask covers a 5, 20 and 50 dollar bill" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/436226/original/file-20211207-138695-1citio8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/436226/original/file-20211207-138695-1citio8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/436226/original/file-20211207-138695-1citio8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/436226/original/file-20211207-138695-1citio8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/436226/original/file-20211207-138695-1citio8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/436226/original/file-20211207-138695-1citio8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/436226/original/file-20211207-138695-1citio8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The pandemic brought new income assistance programs to Canada, like the Canadian Emergency Response Benefit and the revamped Employment Insurance scheme.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Sex workers & taxes</h2>
<p>There is a lot of <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/cerb-sex-worker-access-1.5769650">speculation about whether or not sex workers file income taxes</a> — reasons cited are often fear of criminalization or stigma associated with working in the industry. And unfortunately, data on sex workers’ tax filing habits is difficult to find. </p>
<p>Many researchers focus on sex workers’ sexual health and physical safety, while others conflate sex work with trafficking. A quick look at POWER’s own <a href="https://www.powerottawa.ca/research-repository/">research repository</a> illustrates this. Thankfully, there is a <a href="https://www.ubcpress.ca/red-light-labour">growing body of research</a> on the working conditions of sex workers in Canada to which our study contributes. </p>
<p>Like workers in other sectors, sex workers are a heterogeneous group. Some work full-time, others part-time, or casually as gig workers. Some even operate as small business owners while others work for <a href="https://utorontopress.com/9781487522490/getting-past-the-pimp/">third parties</a>. </p>
<p>Sex work was the primary source of income for 76.6 per cent of our survey respondents, with 16.3 per cent noting that sex work was supplementary income and seven per cent reporting sex work as an occasional form of gig work. </p>
<p>Our data shows that of these workers, nearly 75 per cent reported filing their income taxes in 2019. While not all sex workers claimed all their income from sex work, the majority of them said they did. These findings are a direct rejection of the anecdotal claims that sex workers don’t file taxes. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A graph showing who filed income tax in 2019." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/435162/original/file-20211201-17-1rc1dnl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/435162/original/file-20211201-17-1rc1dnl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=364&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/435162/original/file-20211201-17-1rc1dnl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=364&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/435162/original/file-20211201-17-1rc1dnl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=364&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/435162/original/file-20211201-17-1rc1dnl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=457&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/435162/original/file-20211201-17-1rc1dnl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=457&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/435162/original/file-20211201-17-1rc1dnl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=457&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Percentage of participants who filed income tax in 2019.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Ryan Conrad and Emma McKenna)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The majority of sex workers in our study said they file their income tax regularly and it is a routine part of their business practices. Some workers note that claiming income has enabled them to access other income-related resources, including social safety net programs like social assistance and mortgage agreements. </p>
<p>For less than 25 per cent of sex workers in this study, claiming income from sex work remains challenging. They said taxes invoke worry, fear and anxiety as many are concerned about the repercussions of filing income associated with legal and illegal activities.</p>
<h2>Sex workers & CERB</h2>
<p>Prior to the pandemic, 41 per cent of survey respondents reported accessing social safety net programs (like EI or disability) at some point in the past. This indicates that a significant number of sex workers have successfully navigated social safety net programs at the federal and provincial levels.</p>
<p>Of those that did access social safety nets or new emergency relief programs between the onset of the pandemic in March 2020 and the close of our survey in July 2021, respondents reported receiving one or more financial supports.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="a graph showing who accessed social safety nets between 2020 and 2021" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/435138/original/file-20211201-25-16ofrkp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/435138/original/file-20211201-25-16ofrkp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=362&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/435138/original/file-20211201-25-16ofrkp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=362&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/435138/original/file-20211201-25-16ofrkp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=362&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/435138/original/file-20211201-25-16ofrkp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=454&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/435138/original/file-20211201-25-16ofrkp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=454&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/435138/original/file-20211201-25-16ofrkp.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=454&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Percentage of participants who accessed social safety nets during 2020-21.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Ryan Conrad and Emma McKenna)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>While almost half of our respondents (48.5 per cent) accessed CERB at some point in the first year of the pandemic, an additional 54.5 per cent experienced a period of not having any financial support. Overall, just under a quarter of respondents (23 per cent) indicated they never stopped working despite the risk. </p>
<h2>What happens next</h2>
<p>This research shows how diverse sex workers are and how we cannot talk about them as a monolithic group. Working within a sector of the economy that is stigmatized and criminalized takes skills, savvy and nerve. How sex workers have navigated both the pandemic and relief efforts in the Ottawa-Gatineau region shows this.</p>
<p>As the pandemic wears on, many more sex workers will continue to access social safety nets. These workers know their rights, and they demand inclusion in future policy.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/172351/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ryan Conrad received funding from the Social Science and Humanities Research Council's Partnership Engage Grant COVID-19 Special Initiative to conduct this research in collaboration with Prostitutes of Ottawa-Gatineau Work, Educate, Resist (POWER).</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Emma McKenna received funding from the Social Science and Humanities Research Council's Partnership Engage Grant COVID-19 Special Initiative to conduct this research in collaboration with Prostitutes of Ottawa-Gatineau Work, Educate, Resist (POWER).</span></em></p>Government support programs like CERB and EI provide a safety net. During COVID-19, sex workers accessed various financial support — future policy needs to address the rights and security of sex workers.Ryan Conrad, SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellow, Cinema & Media Studies, York University, CanadaEmma McKenna, SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellow, Criminology, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of OttawaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1732172021-12-09T16:53:43Z2021-12-09T16:53:43ZCERB helped Canadians during COVID-19 — but not the most vulnerable<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/436186/original/file-20211207-27-1o78qzg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C4500%2C2916&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Low employment rates, coupled with limited government support, made Canadians with disabilities more vulnerable to adverse events from the pandemic.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>To coincide with the International Day of Persons with Disabilities on Dec. 3, Statistics Canada released new data about workers with disabilities during the COVID-19 pandemic. </p>
<p><a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/211201/dq211201c-eng.htm?CMP=mstatcan">In a news release</a> and <a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/11-627-m/11-627-m2021083-eng.htm">corresponding infographic</a>, StatCan reported that workers with and without disabilities had similar rates in receiving CERB (34.9 per cent and 33.3 per cent respectively) and that some workers with disabilities were more likely to receive CERB.</p>
<p>The report, however, overestimates the support provided to Canadians with disabilities. This is because such a small percentage of these individuals were eligible, given their employment status when the pandemic hit.</p>
<p>It casually notes that people with disabilities are less likely to be employed and that workers with disabilities are often segregated into lower paying and precarious jobs that were especially affected by the pandemic. </p>
<p>Although the report does explain the eligibility criteria for receiving CERB, the narrative is somewhat misleading. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.thestar.com/business/opinion/2021/06/24/the-success-of-cerb-is-proof-a-universal-basic-income-is-doable-and-beneficial.html">Early parallels were drawn with a universal basic income</a>. But CERB was, in the end, a means-tested program — its income and work-related eligibility criteria excluded many who were not employed and did not receive a certain amount of employment income in the prior year. A large number of these individuals are Canadians with disabilities. </p>
<h2>Canadians with disabilities hit hardest</h2>
<p>According to the <a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/89-654-x/89-654-x2018002-eng.htm">Canadian Survey on Disability</a>, 59 per cent of working age adults with disabilities were employed in 2017. This is far less than the 80 per cent of working age adults without disabilities. </p>
<p>Employment rates decreased with the severity of disability — only 31 per cent of people with severe disabilities are employed. That means low employment rates, coupled with limited government support, lead to increased poverty and insecurity among people with disabilities. These extant conditions made them vulnerable to adverse events like the pandemic. </p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/canadians-with-disabilities-face-an-uncertain-financial-future-132942">Canadians with disabilities face an uncertain financial future</a>
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</em>
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<hr>
<p><a href="https://www.utpjournals.press/doi/pdf/10.3138/cpp.2021-012">Our own research</a> further demonstrates these struggles. We conducted a national survey of Canadians with disabilities and chronic health conditions in June 2020. At that time, only about 22 per cent of our sample had applied for CERB. This was about eight per cent lower than non-disabled workers. </p>
<p>About two-thirds of our sample indicated they had not applied for CERB and had no intention to. Importantly, because half the sample was not working at the time the pandemic hit, these individuals were ineligible for CERB. This left them with few supports to help navigate the financial hardships that COVID-19 exacerbated. </p>
<p>The federal government response when it came to disabled people was <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3788969">a onetime $600 enhanced goods and services tax (GST) payment</a>, given only to those who were registered for a disability tax credit. For most individuals we surveyed and interviewed, this simply wasn’t enough. </p>
<p>Later, the government expanded this program to include an additional <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/employment-social-development/news/2020/07/x.html">1.7 million Canadians with disabilities</a> who already received either a Canada Pension Plan disability benefit or disability support through Veterans Affairs Canada. Again, this missed many people who received neither. In our sample, only 11 per cent of respondents reported receiving a disability tax credit. </p>
<h2>CERB helped, but was not enough</h2>
<p>No doubt, those who could benefit from CERB felt more financially secure during the pandemic. For some, that’s all the income they had. For others, it supplemented other reduced sources of income. </p>
<p>As one of our respondents noted:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“With CERB I am earning about as much as I would have if I was working full time, if the pandemic hadn’t occurred. … I was already in support of universal basic income, but I feel like it’s even more important now.” </p>
</blockquote>
<p>People who received CERB also rated government response more highly. Of course, not everyone who relied exclusively on CERB believed they would make it through the pandemic. Many had no idea when and if they’d return to their jobs. Those living in larger cities with expensive housing markets were concerned about losing their homes. Many were trying to manage as their costs of living increased.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Woman holding the arm of a man, who is holding a white cane. Both are standing on a curb." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/436189/original/file-20211207-17-xweejp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/436189/original/file-20211207-17-xweejp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/436189/original/file-20211207-17-xweejp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/436189/original/file-20211207-17-xweejp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/436189/original/file-20211207-17-xweejp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/436189/original/file-20211207-17-xweejp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/436189/original/file-20211207-17-xweejp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Without financial support, people with disabilities were forced to depend on savings or family members for help.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>On the flip side, many disabled Canadians who could not benefit from CERB were left in a very precarious situation. <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/07311214211012018">As one of our respondents</a> who only received limited provincial disability benefits explained: “I live each day on the edge, wondering if I can make ends meet tomorrow and see if I can feed myself type of thing.” </p>
<p>Without any additional financial aid, respondents were left to rely on savings or other family members for support. </p>
<h2>Too many left unsupported</h2>
<p>CERB is an example of a liberal welfare policy that distinguishes between the deserving and undeserving. Benefits were limited to $2,000 per month and taxable. Benefits were only available to people who earned a minimum of $5,000 in the previous year and whose work was directly affected by COVID-19. </p>
<p>In addition, receiving these benefits affected other government supports. Many who received CERB <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/cerb-cra-gis-payment-clawback-1.6237311">faced unexpected cuts</a> to their guaranteed income supplement (GIS) payments, which are also means-tested. </p>
<p>Such distinctions exacerbate inequalities in times of crisis. </p>
<p>A common complaint from disability groups during the pandemic was that disability-support payments were much lower compared to CERB. This was true when comparing CERB to many provincial support benefits.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/cerb-was-luxurious-compared-to-provincial-social-assistance-158501">CERB was luxurious compared to provincial social assistance</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>It’s also why some have filed Charter challenges, alleging <a href="https://www.thestar.com/business/2021/11/26/cerb-and-crb-discriminated-against-canadians-with-disabilities-new-charter-challenge-claims.html">disability discrimination</a> in these benefits.</p>
<p>Almost two years into the pandemic, it’s clear that CERB was one of the most important programs for limiting the economic and financial consequences of COVID-19. CERB helped many people, including low-income workers and workers with disabilities. </p>
<p>But it wasn’t enough. Too many people were left unsupported. Like many limited means-tested programs that emphasize work above all else, CERB left out the most vulnerable in our society.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/173217/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Pettinicchio receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michelle Maroto receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC). </span></em></p>Canadians with disabilities were hit hardest during the pandemic. CERB limitations meant that many of them were left financially unsupported.David Pettinicchio, Associate Professor, Sociology, University of TorontoMichelle Maroto, Associate Professor of Sociology, University of AlbertaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1585012021-05-02T12:41:36Z2021-05-02T12:41:36ZCERB was luxurious compared to provincial social assistance<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/397861/original/file-20210429-22-wlbdcb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=398%2C0%2C3131%2C2387&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A woman is pictured at the window of her west Toronto apartment in March 2020 as her landlord issued eviction notices at the start of the pandemic. Secure and affordable housing is a big concern of those collecting social assistance, whether it was CERB or provincial programs.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The federal government’s economic response to COVID-19 included a new income support called <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/cerb-ei-benefits-covid19-1.5743537">the Canadian Emergency Response Benefit (CERB)</a>. What was it like to live on CERB when it was available, and how did it compare to the situations of those who were either still working or receiving provincial social assistance?</p>
<p>Surviving on CERB’s $2,000 per month was certainly a pinch. Given median employment income in Canada was <a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=1110024001">$36,900 in 2019</a>, the CERB only replaced two-thirds of monthly employment income for the average Canadian. Given half of Canadians <a href="https://www.ipsos.com/en-ca/news-polls/Canadians-and-Bankruptcy-Oct-2019">are only $200 away from insolvency</a> on a monthly basis, that was a big hit.</p>
<p>Yet for those receiving provincial disability and welfare payments, the CERB was the lap of luxury. Under the Ontario Disability Support Program, people continued to receive only $1,169 per month (<a href="http://www.nlstoronto.org/covid-19-social-assistance.html">with one-time pandemic top-ups</a> of $100 per month until the end of July 2020). This is just two-thirds of the CERB level, but still above the $733 per month provided to Ontario social assistance recipients who did not qualify for CERB.</p>
<h2>Online survey</h2>
<p>To understand what it was like to survive on CERB compared to provincial social assistance programs, we surveyed Ontarians about their employment and income situations during the COVID-19 pandemic. We received nearly 800 responses to our <a href="https://labourstudies.mcmaster.ca/research/impact-of-covid-19/methods-and-demographics-march-2021.pdf">online survey</a>, which allowed us to assess the relative experiences of these groups. </p>
<p>A basic goal of CERB was keeping people fed and housed during the lockdown. CERB recipients were similar to people who were still working when it came to feeding themselves, but were closer to those receiving provincial social assistance in their assessment of housing security. <a href="https://labourstudies.mcmaster.ca/research/impact-of-covid-19/food-security-and-housing-covid">A third of social assistance recipients often did not have enough to eat; half had days with no food</a>. Sixty-three per cent bought nutritious food less often, and nearly a third made increased use of food charities. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Ontario Doug Ford puts a box of Frosted Flakes into a plastic bag." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/397859/original/file-20210429-23-8r41da.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/397859/original/file-20210429-23-8r41da.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=435&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397859/original/file-20210429-23-8r41da.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=435&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397859/original/file-20210429-23-8r41da.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=435&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397859/original/file-20210429-23-8r41da.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=547&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397859/original/file-20210429-23-8r41da.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=547&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397859/original/file-20210429-23-8r41da.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=547&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Ontario Premier Doug Ford delivers food at the Salvation Army food bank in October 2020.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>By contrast, recipients of CERB did much better, with only one-tenth going a day without food, and one-quarter buying nutritious food less often. Their rates of distress on these measures were only slightly higher than those receiving neither CERB nor social assistance.</p>
<p>If CERB recipients continued to eat well, this was at the cost of housing security. Over half reported struggling to keep up with rent and mortgages. Compared to working people, CERB recipients were three times more likely to be concerned about being evicted or having to move. Their level of housing worries were close to those of respondents receiving social assistance.</p>
<p>The two solitudes of CERB and social assistance extended to survival strategies. <a href="https://labourstudies.mcmaster.ca/research/impact-of-covid-19/financial-well-being-covid">CERB and social assistance recipients were both more likely than those employed to take on debt or fall behind on their debts</a>. Both groups made increased calls on family and friends for help. But where CERB recipients covered shortfalls with lines of credit, social assistance recipients drew more heavily on payday loans and pawnbrokers.</p>
<h2>Economic lifeline</h2>
<p>Despite these hardships, CERB recipients were the group that gave the best rating to the government’s economic response. As respondent comments made clear, the CERB was an economic lifeline when the economy shut down. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="People walk past boarded-up storefront" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/397857/original/file-20210429-13-frwrmz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C84%2C4339%2C2663&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/397857/original/file-20210429-13-frwrmz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=382&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397857/original/file-20210429-13-frwrmz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=382&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397857/original/file-20210429-13-frwrmz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=382&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397857/original/file-20210429-13-frwrmz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397857/original/file-20210429-13-frwrmz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397857/original/file-20210429-13-frwrmz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Laid-off workers turned to CERB when the COVID-19 pandemic first took hold.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Paul Chiasson</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Recipients of social assistance were the least satisfied, with only one in seven approving. While their incomes did not drop during the pandemic, their costs did rise, and survival strategies based on mutual aid became difficult under lockdown. <a href="https://labourstudies.mcmaster.ca/research/impact-of-covid-19/factsheet-6-health-and-covid-march-2021.pdf">Eighty per cent claimed they suffered the loss of meaningful relations, compared to only half for CERB recipients</a> and those still working.</p>
<p>What policy lessons did the recipients of CERB and provincial social assistance draw from their experience? Here the solitudes converge. </p>
<p><a href="https://labourstudies.mcmaster.ca/research/impact-of-covid-19/attitudes-towards-government-covid">Two-thirds of both groups became more favourable of the role of government in supporting society</a>. Asked to name three policy priorities for extending government support, basic income was the most popular, with nine out of 10 social assistance recipients and nearly three-quarters of CERB recipients listing it in their top three choices. This was followed by affordable housing (66 per cent and 51 per cent respectively) and a dental plan (45 per cent and 49 per cent).</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-build-a-better-canada-after-covid-19-transform-cerb-into-a-basic-annual-income-program-140683">How to build a better Canada after COVID-19: Transform CERB into a basic annual income program</a>
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</p>
<hr>
<h2>Proposals to revamp benefits</h2>
<p>These opinions mesh with a number of policy blueprints for renewing social protections for citizens. The <a href="https://maytree.com/publications/towards-a-new-architecture-for-canadas-adult-benefits/">Caledon Institute</a> proposed revamping benefits to provide income, housing, training and disability benefits for all low-income individuals. </p>
<p>Others have argued for an expansion of public services, dental, vision and <a href="https://munkschool.utoronto.ca/mowatcentre/unfilled-prescriptions-the-drug-coverage-gap-in-canadas-health-care-system/">drug benefits</a> to ensure that people can look after their basic health regardless of the quality of their jobs or whether they’re working at any given time. The December 2020 report of the <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3781825">British Columbia Expert Panel on Basic Income</a> took up many of these ideas.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/canadians-should-be-able-to-access-dental-care-with-a-health-card-instead-of-a-credit-card-156823">Canadians should be able to access dental care with a health card instead of a credit card</a>
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</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The federal government’s <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/privy-council/campaigns/speech-throne/2020/stronger-resilient-canada.html">September 2020 throne speech</a> acknowledged these blueprints with its promise of a Disability Inclusion Plan, including a benefit that would improve upon existing provincial social assistance. </p>
<p>It also promised expanded public investment in housing and a national pharmacare plan. These are not new promises, and they were largely forgotten in <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/budget-debate-begins-1.5994282">the recent 2021 federal budget</a>. It is an open question whether the CERB experience can sustain political momentum for renewing income security measures.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/158501/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Peter Graefe is a fellow at the Broadbent Institute. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mohammad Ferdosi (PhD) does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>CERB was a lifeline but no paradise, highlighting the struggles of social assistance recipients to get by on much less.Peter Graefe, Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, McMaster UniversityMohammad Ferdosi (PhD), Political Science PhD candidate, McMaster UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1571072021-04-14T16:27:21Z2021-04-14T16:27:21ZRural vs. urban Canada: No ‘one size fits all’ COVID-19 recovery<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/394794/original/file-20210413-17-kp7cm9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5450%2C3277&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Part of Gros Morne National Park in western Newfoundland is seen in June 2017. Tourism is critically important for many areas of rural Canada. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Colin Perkel</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The realities of rural Canada are poorly understood, with the word rural often used as though it’s a monolithic thing.</p>
<p>In February, a news article published across Canada identified a <a href="https://www.thestar.com/business/2021/02/15/a-rural-urban-divide-data-gives-most-detailed-look-yet-at-where-cerb-went.html">rural-urban split in the distribution of the Canada Emergency Response Benefit, known as CERB</a>. The article identified a higher proportion of urban residents relying on CERB. The article provided perspectives from various people offering explanations about the possible reasons for the difference. </p>
<p>These explanations featured generalizations about urban reliance on tourism resulting in greater need, and rural reliance on natural resources that “wouldn’t have been hit as hard” by COVID-19. </p>
<p>This narrative no doubt came as a surprise to tourism-dependent rural communities, where COVID-19 has had significant impacts on employment and exacerbated tensions between residents and urban visitors. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/do-you-have-a-right-to-go-to-the-cottage-during-the-coronavirus-pandemic-138702">Do you have a right to go to the cottage during the coronavirus pandemic?</a>
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<hr>
<p>The tourism sector, in fact, is critically important to rural communities. In British Columbia, for example, rural communities are on average more dependent than urban centres on tourism as a source of employment, and communities with the largest dependence on tourism are rural. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A graph shows Employment in Tourism by Community Type in B.C." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/392648/original/file-20210330-21-1il08yh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/392648/original/file-20210330-21-1il08yh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=357&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392648/original/file-20210330-21-1il08yh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=357&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392648/original/file-20210330-21-1il08yh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=357&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392648/original/file-20210330-21-1il08yh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392648/original/file-20210330-21-1il08yh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392648/original/file-20210330-21-1il08yh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Employment in tourism by community type in British Columbia, based on Statistic Canada’s 2016 Census data.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Author)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The notion that communities reliant on natural resource sectors were not as hard hit by COVID-19 also likely came as a surprise. These communities continue <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/calgary-oil-gas-jobs-statscan-covid-oilwell-drilling-employment-1.5737355">to experience layoffs and costly changes to business practices</a>. </p>
<p>Statistics Canada data shows <a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=3310027901">that employment in forestry, fishing, mining, oil and gas is below previous years’ levels</a>.</p>
<h2>The use of social programs is complex</h2>
<p>Just as there are unique dynamics influencing different sectors, the use of support programs by rural Canadians — whether they’re federal or provincial support programs, aimed at businesses or those who have lost work — is also complex. Use is not only influenced by need, but by other factors, like the ability to access support. </p>
<p>Treating rural communities as a monolithic entity conceals the range of experiences across rural communities. The resulting narrative can create false impressions — including the notion that rural communities are doing well in comparison to urban areas during the COVID-19 pandemic.</p>
<p>If we consider economic concentration in British Columbia by community size, we see that rural communities on average are less economically diverse. However, we also see high levels of variation among rural communities — some are as diversified as urban centres. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A graph shows Economic Concentration by Population Size in B.C." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/392647/original/file-20210330-21-132gx3k.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/392647/original/file-20210330-21-132gx3k.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392647/original/file-20210330-21-132gx3k.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392647/original/file-20210330-21-132gx3k.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392647/original/file-20210330-21-132gx3k.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392647/original/file-20210330-21-132gx3k.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392647/original/file-20210330-21-132gx3k.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Economic concentration by population size in British Columbia, based on Statistic Canada’s 2016 Census data.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Author)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Data from other provinces and territories will tell a different story — because there is far more than a single rural story. </p>
<h2>Rural data matters</h2>
<p>All of this illustrates a larger pattern of failing to recognize rural diversity. This pattern contributes to policy failures that impact rural realities and limit future opportunities. The sheer number of communities in rural Canada, along with a lack of organized and accessible community-level data, often leads governments to develop policies that do not account for the differences between rural and urban, let alone differences across rural regions. </p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrurstud.2018.12.005">Governments tend to understand urban and rural as two contrasting groups</a>, and that rural communities need help catching up with urban centres. This is wrong on two levels. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A farm tractor and baler sit in a hay field amid a misty sunrise." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/394553/original/file-20210412-23-1e3n0t9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/394553/original/file-20210412-23-1e3n0t9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/394553/original/file-20210412-23-1e3n0t9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/394553/original/file-20210412-23-1e3n0t9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/394553/original/file-20210412-23-1e3n0t9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/394553/original/file-20210412-23-1e3n0t9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/394553/original/file-20210412-23-1e3n0t9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">A farm tractor and baler sit in a hay field on a misty morning near Cremona, Alta.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh</span></span>
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<p>First, it does not consider variations within each group. Second, it assumes that development for rural communities means becoming more urbanized. As a result, one-size-fits-all policies are created that don’t account for the realities of rural communities. </p>
<p>Policies are time and again built on this binary understanding, mostly because this simplification makes policies easier to create and implement. </p>
<p>A first step to developing better policies is to improve policy-makers’ knowledge of rural communities by compiling and organizing community-level data in a user-friendly way. Although it can be difficult to obtain data, especially for small and Indigenous communities, much of what is available is under-used. Improving access would help to close this gap. </p>
<p>However, data access is not enough to bring about better policies. Decision-makers need to be convinced of the need to recognize rural diversity. </p>
<h2>How composite indicators can help</h2>
<p>That is where composite indicators (CI) can play a role. CIs — like the United Nations’ <a href="http://hdr.undp.org/en/content/human-development-index-hdi">Human Development Index</a> — can synthesize multidimensional concepts into a single score through the compilation of individual indicators. </p>
<p>The ability to simplify complex issues makes CIs powerful tools to draw attention to a topic. A well-designed CI can shed light on a range of different rural realities and spur a conversation about the need to acknowledge rural diversity in policy. </p>
<p>One approach to building a rural CI is <a href="https://dspace.library.uvic.ca/handle/1828/12165">to base it on five types of capital</a>. How communities perform in each of these areas can help policy-makers understand their needs and barriers. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A graphic shows different types of capital" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/392649/original/file-20210330-13-tek46k.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/392649/original/file-20210330-13-tek46k.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=290&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392649/original/file-20210330-13-tek46k.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=290&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392649/original/file-20210330-13-tek46k.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=290&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392649/original/file-20210330-13-tek46k.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=364&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392649/original/file-20210330-13-tek46k.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=364&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392649/original/file-20210330-13-tek46k.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=364&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Different types of capital, based on the study ‘Understanding community conditions to improve place-based rural development policies and programs.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Diogo Oliveira, University of Victoria)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>CIs are one tool to shine a spotlight on rural diversity and provide insights into rural realities. However, moving away from policies that treat rural communities as an undifferentiated group will require more than a single tool.</p>
<p>It requires acknowledgement that viewing rural Canada as monolothic and the policies — and news stories — built on that assessment have limited value for rural communities. As Canada prepares for post-pandemic life, rural communities would benefit from flexible policies that support them in achieving their goals. </p>
<p><em>Diogo Oliveira, who graduated with a master’s in public administration from the University of Victoria, co-authored this piece.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/157107/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sarah-Patricia Breen receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada in support of various research projects.</span></em></p>Misconceptions of rural realities can have serious implications. Better use of data can help avoid this and lead to policies that will help rural communities recover in the post-pandemic.Sarah-Patricia Breen, Adjunct Professor, Public Policy, University of SaskatchewanLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1543542021-02-14T16:52:35Z2021-02-14T16:52:35ZInstead of a universal basic income, governments should enrich existing social programs<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/383127/original/file-20210208-23-1vu60r4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C6000%2C3440&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A man steps out of the trailer he lives in at a homeless encampment at Strathcona Park in Vancouver in December 2020. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the idea of a universal basic income (UBI) has been touted by those across the political spectrum <a href="https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137265227_5">as a prospective model of social security that would provide guaranteed cash to citizens</a>.</p>
<p>But while UBI is desirable in principle, it’s not a magic solution to the intricate and perennial problems of poverty and income inequality. Furthermore, its implementation in Canada is not financially, administratively, politically or constitutionally feasible. </p>
<p>Within emerging literature on the implications of the COVID-19 pandemic on employment and earning levels, UBI has been elevated to the status of a panacea that could ease all the social and economic ills that societies are encountering during the crisis. </p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/job-guarantees-basic-income-can-save-us-from-covid-19-depression-133997">Job guarantees, basic income can save us from COVID-19 depression</a>
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<p>Ardent advocates of UBI have argued that it has the potential to reduce poverty, <a href="https://commons.allard.ubc.ca/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1357&context=fac_pubs">narrow income inequality gaps</a>, address automation, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2006.01.012">eradicate the stigma associated with collecting government assistance</a>, enhance the social well-being of citizens, diminish dependency and streamline existing complex and fragmented social transfer programs and public services.</p>
<p>The appeal of UBI in Canada has become so strong that several Liberal MPs have asked Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to elevate UBI <a href="https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Americas/2020/0922/Has-guaranteed-basic-income-s-time-arrived-Canada-may-find-out">to the top of his policy agenda</a>.</p>
<h2>From CERB to a universal basic income?</h2>
<p>Some advocates of UBI contend that the gradual conversion of the CERB (Canada Emergency Relief Benefit) into UBI <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/universal-basic-income-cerb-transition-1.5643096">is a logical progression</a>. </p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-build-a-better-canada-after-covid-19-transform-cerb-into-a-basic-annual-income-program-140683">How to build a better Canada after COVID-19: Transform CERB into a basic annual income program</a>
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<p>However, if UBI is set at a monthly, $1,000 unconditional benefit for every adult Canadian, the total net annual cost <a href="https://nationalpost.com/opinion/chris-selley-universal-basic-income-is-not-coming-to-canada-no-matter-what-the-liberals-say">would be $364 billion</a>. Obviously, that’s not only financially unsustainable, it’s also politically suicidal. </p>
<p>On the other hand, according to a <a href="https://www.pbo-dpb.gc.ca/en/blog/news/RP-2021-014-M--costing-guaranteed-basic-income-during-covid-pandemic--estimation-couts-lies-un-revenu-base-garanti-pendant-pandemie-covid-19">report released by the Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer in 2020</a>, the estimated cost of a watered-down version of UBI — called a guaranteed basic income — covering only low-income, working-age Canadians (estimated at 9.6 million Canadians between the ages of 18 to 64) would be in range of $47.5 billion to $98.1 billion for a <a href="https://basicincometoday.com/a-basic-income-guarantee-for-all-canadians-could-cost-less-in-canada-than-their-emergency-relief-benefit/">six-month period</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="Canadian bills under a ledger." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/382872/original/file-20210207-22-15biust.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=6%2C0%2C2204%2C1554&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/382872/original/file-20210207-22-15biust.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382872/original/file-20210207-22-15biust.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382872/original/file-20210207-22-15biust.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382872/original/file-20210207-22-15biust.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=532&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382872/original/file-20210207-22-15biust.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=532&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382872/original/file-20210207-22-15biust.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=532&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Policy-makers and the public in Canada and around the world are eyeing universal basic income proposals, in part due to the COVID-19 pandemic.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Richard Plume</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>Under this attenuated version of UBI — <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-cancellation-of-ontarios-basic-income-project-is-a-tragedy-101555">similar to the Ontario basic income pilot project</a> introduced by the former provincial Liberal government in 2017 and later abandoned by Doug Ford’s government — individuals and couples would receive an annual income of $18,329 and $25,921 respectively. </p>
<p>The projected cost range depends on how much of the benefit is clawed back from recipients when any other income increases above an established threshold. </p>
<h2>Taxes raised?</h2>
<p>Even under this trimmed version of UBI, however, there could be pressure to significantly raise taxes to pay for it, which could inflict colossal costs on the economy. </p>
<p>Some UBI advocates argue that part of the cost of maintaining the program <a href="https://www.pbo-dpb.gc.ca/web/default/files/Documents/Reports/RP-2021-014-M/RP-2021-014-M_en.pdf">could be recovered by eliminating or curtailing almost 55 federal and provincial social programs</a> that have been put in place to assist low-income and vulnerable Canadians. </p>
<p>But a critical point they’re missing is the fact that current federal and provincial social programs <a href="http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/%7Eiversen/PDFfiles/48.2pierson.html">have already created their own constituencies</a>. Replacing existing social assistance programs with a guaranteed basic income might not be attractive to recipients of these existing benefits.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/382874/original/file-20210207-19-h8uarg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C2995%2C2164&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A homeless man holds up a sign reading Homeless and Broke." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/382874/original/file-20210207-19-h8uarg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C2995%2C2164&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/382874/original/file-20210207-19-h8uarg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382874/original/file-20210207-19-h8uarg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382874/original/file-20210207-19-h8uarg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382874/original/file-20210207-19-h8uarg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=553&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382874/original/file-20210207-19-h8uarg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=553&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382874/original/file-20210207-19-h8uarg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=553&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">A homeless man holds up a sign in Montréal in January 2021.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes</span></span>
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<p>Under the Ontario Basic Income Pilot project, for example, people with disabilities <a href="https://maytree.com/wp-content/uploads/Lessons-from-Ontario%E2%80%99s-Basic-Income-Pilot.pdf">were asked to give up other public supports in order to access the program</a>. It was in fact due to the perceived unattractiveness of this trade-off that many people with disabilities <a href="https://mikepmoffatt.medium.com/the-ontario-basic-income-pilot-shows-the-real-world-problems-with-a-basic-income-c117e62d98fc">refused to enrol in the program</a>.</p>
<p>It’s a formidable task to persuade Canadians who have been attached to these programs to opt for even this attenuated version of UBI. </p>
<h2>Government limitations</h2>
<p>Finally, one of the most challenging procedural constraints in adopting a UBI, all but ignored by its proponents in Canada, is a constitutional convention that limits the ability of the federal government to introduce a new social program. </p>
<p>The federal government has historically attempted to justify its politically contentious inroads into social policy domain by invoking <a href="https://ualawccsprod.srv.ualberta.ca/2019/07/federal-spending-power/">federal spending power</a>, which permits Parliament to make payments to individuals, organizations, institutions and governments for purposes over which it has no constitutional jurisdiction. </p>
<p>Federal spending power has been the source of longtime contention between federal and provincial governments, especially Québec, which calls it <a href="https://www.thefreelibrary.com/The+federal+spending+power+in+Canada%3A+nation-building+or...-a0106649900">an affront to provincial autonomy and sovereignty</a>. </p>
<p>Under the ground rules established by the Social Union Framework Agreement (SUFA) of 1999 that Québec did not sign, the federal government agreed to refrain from introducing new social programs <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/3331175.pdf">without the consent of the majority of provinces</a>.</p>
<p>That means establishing UBI as a national program requires tedious and complicated negotiations between federal and provincial governments. Reaching a political consensus on which current social programs should be trimmed or eliminated is a tall order. </p>
<h2>Enrich current social programs instead</h2>
<p>Rather than sacrificing existing social programs and services in favour of UBI, federal and provincial governments should enrich current social programs and invest in Canadians in order to strengthen their capability to fully participate in employment and social life. </p>
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<img alt="Volunteers sort through donated food items." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/382873/original/file-20210207-23-12xj3mp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/382873/original/file-20210207-23-12xj3mp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=405&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382873/original/file-20210207-23-12xj3mp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=405&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382873/original/file-20210207-23-12xj3mp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=405&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382873/original/file-20210207-23-12xj3mp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=509&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382873/original/file-20210207-23-12xj3mp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=509&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382873/original/file-20210207-23-12xj3mp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=509&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Volunteers sort through donated food items and other sundries during the a food drive in Montréal in September 2020.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes</span></span>
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<p>Adopting UBI requires a fundamental restructuring of the existing social safety net in Canada, and would not necessarily culminate in conquering income inequality and poverty as <a href="https://news.ubc.ca/2021/01/28/basic-income-guarantee/">its advocates have claimed</a>. </p>
<p>Even some social justice activists have recently come to the realization that UBI <a href="https://www.jacobinmag.com/2017/12/universal-basic-income-inequality-work">“is not an alternative to neoliberalism, but an ideological capitulation to it.”</a> According to this line of reasoning, UBI provides a golden opportunity and enormous latitude for governments at all levels to justify further cuts to public services like health care, education and social housing, and to shift the rising cost of living to individuals.</p>
<p>As Matthew Flisfeder, a professor at the University of Winnipeg, has aptly pointed out, without reducing the cost of living, UBI would become nothing more than “<a href="http://uniter.ca/view/universal-basic-income-is-not-the-answer">a mere prop to markets and a way to serve individual and household debts</a>.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/154354/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sirvan Karimi does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Adopting a universal basic income requires a fundamental restructuring of the existing social safety net in Canada, and would not necessarily conquer income inequality and poverty.Sirvan Karimi, Assistant professor in School of Public Policy and Administration, York University, CanadaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1535382021-01-26T14:58:31Z2021-01-26T14:58:31ZCOVID-19 outbreaks in long-term care highlight the urgent need for paid sick leave<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/380362/original/file-20210125-23-1hgkaym.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=32%2C0%2C3600%2C2382&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A personal support worker with West Neighbourhood House's Parkdale Assisted Living Program on her way to see a resident at Toronto's May Robinson apartments seniors' housing on April 17 2020. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>It was welcome news to see vaccination efforts against the COVID-19 virus begin in Ontario in December, and that the first recipient was a personal support worker from a long-term care home, <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/covid-19-coronavirus-ontario-december-14-vaccines-arrive-1.5840092">Anita Quidangen</a>. However, a successful vaccination campaign will not end the crisis in long-term care. </p>
<p>The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in catastrophic levels of illness and death: <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-new-data-show-canada-ranks-among-worlds-worst-for-ltc-deaths/">81 per cent of the total COVID-19 deaths</a> that occurred in Canada during the first wave were in long-term care homes, which is almost twice as high as other countries within the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Long-term care homes have also been hit with <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/covid-outbreak-lynnwood-edmonton-longterm-care-1.5882617">devastating outbreaks</a> during the <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ontario-covid-19-variant-ontario-long-term-care-1.5885900">second wave of the pandemic</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/380363/original/file-20210125-13-8z5i1x.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A woman in a mask gets an injection in her arm from another woman, while Premier Doug Ford stands in the background" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/380363/original/file-20210125-13-8z5i1x.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/380363/original/file-20210125-13-8z5i1x.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380363/original/file-20210125-13-8z5i1x.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380363/original/file-20210125-13-8z5i1x.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380363/original/file-20210125-13-8z5i1x.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=521&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380363/original/file-20210125-13-8z5i1x.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=521&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380363/original/file-20210125-13-8z5i1x.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=521&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Ontario Premier Doug Ford looks on as personal support worker Anita Quidangen gets her second dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine from registered nurse Hiwot Arfaso in Toronto on Jan 4, 2021.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Frank Gunn</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The age of frail residents and their complex co-morbidities are not the only reasons for the vulnerability in this sector. </p>
<h2>Crisis in care homes is rooted in precarious work</h2>
<p>The novel coronavirus is <a href="https://jacobinmag.com/2021/01/covid-19-business-work-public-health">an occupational disease, which is a hazard that spreads rapidly at work</a>. The crisis in the long-term care sector as well as many other susceptible workplaces reflects long-standing precarious conditions consisting of a predominantly <a href="https://theconversation.com/inquiry-into-coronavirus-nursing-home-deaths-needs-to-include-discussion-of-workers-and-race-139017">racialized</a>, immigrant and female workforce, combined with a novel viral pandemic, which results in presenteeism — in other words, <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-nursing-home-aides-exposed-to-covid-19-arent-taking-sick-leave-150138">continuing to work despite exposure to or falling ill from COVID-19</a>. </p>
<p>As echoed in previous research, not only do precarious employees work at <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/344352723_COVID-19_and_Healthcare_Workers%27_Struggles_in_Long_Term_Care_Homes">multiple sites</a>, but there are significant financial consequences for workers if they call in sick. These workers are often employed in low-income jobs such as <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5218838/">ancillary workers or support staff</a> in the <a href="https://theconversation.com/we-need-an-ethical-compass-for-fixing-long-term-care-during-the-covid-19-crisis-140119">health-care sector</a>, gig-economy employees, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s12134-015-0427-z">taxi drivers and temporary, contract or agency workers</a>. They face financial penalties for missing work. </p>
<p>Although federal employment insurance sickness benefits offer qualifying workers <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/services/benefits/ei/ei-sickness/benefit-amount.html">a portion of their wages</a>, the maximum benefit is only 55 per cent of wages. In addition, there are <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/services/benefits/ei/waiting-period.html#h2.1">waiting periods</a> that may serve as disincentives. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A woman and a man in face masks and winter coats, holding a cardboard sign reading '43 dead their lives mattered'" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/380376/original/file-20210125-19-p24lgd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/380376/original/file-20210125-19-p24lgd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=438&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380376/original/file-20210125-19-p24lgd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=438&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380376/original/file-20210125-19-p24lgd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=438&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380376/original/file-20210125-19-p24lgd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=550&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380376/original/file-20210125-19-p24lgd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=550&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380376/original/file-20210125-19-p24lgd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=550&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">People protest on Dec. 29, 2020 outside the Tendercare Living Centre long-term care facility in Scarborough, Ont., a facility that has been hit hard during the second wave of COVID-19 .</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Similarly, the <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/benefits/recovery-sickness-benefit/crsb-who-apply.html">Canada Recovery Sickness Benefit</a> offers income support for workers with COVID-19, but it’s only $450 a week after taxes. In addition, workers can only apply after missing 50 per cent of their work week, meaning they cannot use it to stay home when sick on the first day of symptoms. </p>
<p>All of this means that precariously employed, low-wage workers have little incentive to be away from work when sick if they are already struggling to make ends meet on their full salaries. Indeed, recent research suggests that in the long-term care sector, workers <a href="https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-020-8288-6">did not earn enough</a> to adequately provide for their families. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2020.113524">Income inequalities combined with racism</a> have also been reported. So while the COVID-19 vaccine seems promising, an important question is: How does one vaccinate against precarious work? </p>
<h2>Paid sick days for all amount to health equity</h2>
<p>Addressing the current crisis requires both a vaccine against the coronavirus and policies that support precarious workers, such as paid sick days. The <a href="https://www.decentworkandhealth.org/">Decent Work and Health Network</a> has been advocating for paid sick days for years. As the network explained <a href="https://d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/dwhn/pages/135/attachments/original/1604082294/DWHN_BeforeItsTooLate.pdf?1604082294">in its recent report</a>, paid sick days are crucial for public health and for achieving equity. </p>
<p>The report notes that groups who are in most urgent need of paid sick days — those who have experienced higher rates of COVID-19 and greater economic repercussions during the pandemic — are the low-wage racialized workers who are among the least likely to have these benefits: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Like vaccines, paid sick days must be universal in order to protect the most vulnerable. The crisis in long-term care illustrates how precarious work and gaps in paid sick days expose the most vulnerable.” </p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/380375/original/file-20210125-21-g7oj3z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Two women in PPE and an elderly man sitting in a chair" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/380375/original/file-20210125-21-g7oj3z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/380375/original/file-20210125-21-g7oj3z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380375/original/file-20210125-21-g7oj3z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380375/original/file-20210125-21-g7oj3z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380375/original/file-20210125-21-g7oj3z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380375/original/file-20210125-21-g7oj3z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/380375/original/file-20210125-21-g7oj3z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Personal support workers Ana Nguyen and Olivia Proudfoot tend to Israel Gorlick at Springhurst Manor, part of Parkdale Assisted Living, a programme run by West Neighbourhood House, in Toronto in December 2020.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Dr. Teresa Tam, the chief public health officer of Canada, has called for paid sick days, both to counter the current pandemic and to make society healthier and more equitable. As she describes in her <a href="https://www.canada.ca/content/dam/phac-aspc/documents/corporate/publications/chief-public-health-officer-reports-state-public-health-canada/from-risk-resilience-equity-approach-covid-19/cpho-covid-report-eng.pdf">Report on the State of Public Health in Canada 2020</a>, the long-term care crisis is rooted in long-term precarious work. She identifies several factors that were significant for personal support workers in long-term care: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“… these disadvantages include economic and employment insecurity, a lack of paid sick leave, and the need to work multiple jobs to make ends meet.” </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Among the specific actions she calls for are minimum staffing levels and quality full-time jobs with benefits that include paid sick leave. </p>
<p>The Ontario COVID-19 Science Advisory Table’s new report on <a href="https://covid19-sciencetable.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Science-Brief_Full-Brief_COVID-19-and-Ontarios-Long-Term-Care-Homes_published.pdf">COVID-19 and Ontario’s Long-Term Care Homes</a> has evidence-based measures to reduce outbreaks and deaths both with and without the COVID-19 vaccine. These include improved working conditions and guaranteed paid sick leave.</p>
<p>The need to address precarious work has never been so urgent, and the call for paid sick days <a href="https://ipolitics.ca/2021/01/19/ontario-mayors-join-opposition-in-demanding-paid-sick-days/">has never been so widespread</a> — from nurse and physician associations to mayors and chief medical officers of health. </p>
<h2>Address the conditions that nurtured outbreaks</h2>
<p>Addressing the effects of the pandemic requires both vaccinating against the virus and improving the working conditions that nurtured it, especially those of low-wage immigrant, racialized and female groups working in long-term care. Paid sick days are an essential complement to the vaccine, and part of returning to a new, healthier normal. </p>
<p>We need to vaccinate against COVID-19 but also inoculate society against precarious work by following the advice in Dr. Tam’s report and supporting “full-time quality jobs with benefits such as paid sick leave.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/153538/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>One of the factors that has made COVID-19 so catastrophic in long-term care homes was lack of paid sick leave for low-wage workers.Iffath Unissa Syed, Postdoctoral Fellow, Institute for Pandemics, Institute of Health Policy, Management, and Evaluation (IHMPE), Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of TorontoJesse McLaren, Emergency physician and Assistant Professor in the Department of Family and Community Medicine, University of TorontoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1432302020-08-11T17:04:14Z2020-08-11T17:04:14ZPublic relations is bad news<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/351992/original/file-20200810-20-1fm63r2.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C4000%2C2658&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A mourner in Calgary places flowers at a memorial for a Cargill worker who died from COVID-19. A PR campaign that alleged workers would rather collect government assistance than work failed to mention their employment in industries hit hard by COVID-19.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>As the Canadian economy slowly recovers from COVID-19 lockdowns, <a href="https://www.cp24.com/news/some-employees-cite-cerb-as-reason-to-refuse-return-to-work-cfib-survey-says-1.5027100">there have been news articles</a> suggesting the Canada Emergency Response Benefit is <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/7184365/businesses-staff-refusing-return-to-work-survey/">encouraging workers to stay off the job</a>. </p>
<p>But a peek behind the headlines reveals the source of the story to be a business lobby group using a powerful and classic public relations strategy — <a href="https://www.cfib-fcei.ca/en/media/news-releases/more-one-quarter-small-firms-report-workers-refusing-return-work-preference">the news release</a> — to manipulate headlines.</p>
<p>The Canadian Federation of Independent Businesses (CFIB) represents more than 100,000 members who operate small businesses across Canada. The association advocates for specific policy changes that advance the goals of their membership. </p>
<p>In recent years, the CFIB has lobbied <a href="https://www.cfib-fcei.ca/en/media/15-minimum-wage-job-killer-ontarios-youth-cfib-report">against increasing the minimum wage</a> and <a href="https://www.cfib-fcei.ca/en/media/new-federal-labour-law-changes-giant-step-backwards-innovation-and-productivity">against guaranteed personal leave for workers</a>, among other causes. </p>
<h2>Swaying public opinion</h2>
<p>To rally support for these changes, organizations like the CFIB employ public relations strategies designed to secure headlines that sway public opinion and put pressure on governments. This is especially important when their policy goal is at odds with public sentiment. </p>
<p>For example, polling suggests Canadians <a href="https://www.ipsos.com/en-ca/news-and-polls/Canadians-Split-On-Future-Of-CERB-Half-Believe-CERB-Should-Be-Discountinued-At-Its-Earliest">overwhelmingly support</a> the federal Canadian Emergency Relief Benefit, known as the CERB, which pays $500 a week to workers who are out of work due to the pandemic. </p>
<p>The CFIB, however, said in its news release that the CERB is a “disincentive” to work and wants to see wage subsidies expanded to include more profitable small businesses. To campaign for this, organizations like the CFIB use PR techniques to undermine public support for CERB and advocate for their own policy solutions.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="An employment insurance form on a laptop." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/351656/original/file-20200806-24-1u5r4kq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/351656/original/file-20200806-24-1u5r4kq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351656/original/file-20200806-24-1u5r4kq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351656/original/file-20200806-24-1u5r4kq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351656/original/file-20200806-24-1u5r4kq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=552&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351656/original/file-20200806-24-1u5r4kq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=552&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351656/original/file-20200806-24-1u5r4kq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=552&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The employment insurance section of the Government of Canada website is shown on a laptop in Toronto on April 4, 2020.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jesse Johnston</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>PR makes it a challenge to know what is fact and what is spin, even from reputable news sources. Since the 1950s, critics have questioned the intent of PR practices. They have examined how organizations use the authority of mass media outlets to advance specific policy agendas that better fit their aims. </p>
<p>PR is a form of manipulation: it’s used to shift public opinion. It is expressly designed to benefit the organization wielding it.</p>
<p>This tension can be found in the early 20th century, when modern PR was established as a coherent set of business practices. During this period, activists and journalists alike pressured state and provincial governments into developing aggressive regulatory regimes that would soften the sharpest edges of industrial capitalism.</p>
<p>In the early 1900s, massive scandals fuelled public mistrust in business in North America. Labour activists, journalists and academic critics wrote shocking exposés that revealed the wealthy’s <a href="https://archive.org/details/historyofstandar00tarbuoft">gross consolidation of corporate power</a>, <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/files/54710/54710-h/54710-h.htm">their influence in municipal politics</a> and their attempts <a href="https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/minute/Treason_of_the_Senate.htm">to game the highest levels of government</a>. </p>
<h2>Progressive policies</h2>
<p>To the dismay of wealthy capitalists, progressive governments responded to the revelations by developing policies that regulated <a href="https://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=false&doc=59#">working conditions</a>, <a href="https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/221/1/">reined in corporate power</a> and bolstered the protections of ordinary people <a href="https://constitutioncenter.org/interactive-constitution/amendment/amendment-xvii">as citizens</a> <a href="https://www.visitthecapitol.gov/exhibitions/artifact/s-88-draft-bill-pure-food-and-drug-act-december-14-1905">and consumers</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Two boys working in a glass factory in the early 1900s." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/351659/original/file-20200806-16-3n0hhg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/351659/original/file-20200806-16-3n0hhg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=407&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351659/original/file-20200806-16-3n0hhg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=407&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351659/original/file-20200806-16-3n0hhg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=407&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351659/original/file-20200806-16-3n0hhg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=511&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351659/original/file-20200806-16-3n0hhg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=511&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351659/original/file-20200806-16-3n0hhg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=511&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Midnight at the glassworks in Indiana, with children on the job. Child labour was among the practices outlawed by progressive governments in the early 1900s.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Library of Congress)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As corporate interests lost public support, they fought back with canny public relations strategies designed to flip the story, framing business as a public service and businessmen and capitalists as allies, not enemies, to ordinary people.</p>
<p>These tactics were further formalized during the First World War when PR men, advertisers and government officials came together to form the United States federal government’s Committee on Public Information (CPI). </p>
<p>The CPI enlisted advertisers, commercial illustrators and public relations experts to build a home front propaganda campaign that would rally support for the war effort. CPI illustrator Charles Dana Gibson called for evocative campaigns that showed <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1918/01/20/archives/cd-gibsons-committee-for-patriotic-posters-artists-have-been.html">“the more spiritual side of the conflict.”</a></p>
<p>The success of the CPI helped legitimize the American advertising and PR industries. It taught public relations experts an invaluable lesson: It paid dividends to link their clients — titans of industry and major corporations — to the promise of democracy. </p>
<h2>Collective well-being</h2>
<p>It was only through the careful management of public opinion regarding industrial capitalism, PR experts began to argue in the 1920s, that true democracy and collective well-being was possible.</p>
<p>Today the news release, along with public opinion surveys, are immensely influential PR tools for shaping what gets covered as news and how it’s covered. </p>
<p>PR has become <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/14616700701767974">the backbone of news production</a> globally, capitalizing on underfunded newsrooms and overworked journalists. </p>
<p>The news release is designed to make life easy for the busy journalist. It provides them with ready-made narratives and interpretations that are easily translated to a news article. In fact, news releases are often presented as a standardized genre, with countless guides listing the same <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescommunicationscouncil/2017/11/02/writing-a-press-release-14-elements-you-need-to-include/#4324c25b719f">10 to 14 elements</a> that <a href="https://www.shopify.ca/blog/how-to-write-a-press-release">every news release </a> should include in order to <a href="https://www2.le.ac.uk/offices/external/news/publicising/how-to-write-a-press-release/inverted-pyramid">quickly communicate</a> the organization’s point of view and message. </p>
<p>This standardization makes news releases easy to circulate and easy to critically examine. For example, the recent CFIB release announced both the results of their membership survey on the CERB and provided an interpretation of it. </p>
<p>The survey provides the gloss of objectivity (by allowing an organization to point to findings rather than blatant ideological posturing) while a pull-quote from their president offers an interpretation: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“It is clear that CERB has created a disincentive to return to work for some staff, especially in industries like hospitality and personal services … CERB was created as emergency support for workers who had lost their job due to the pandemic, not to fund a summer break. This is why it is critical that all parties support the government’s proposed change to end CERB benefits when an employer asks a worker to return to work.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The CFIB news release made for a quick and easy story turnaround.</p>
<h2>Misleading interpretations</h2>
<p>But we should be wary of such ready-made interpretations, because they’re often misleading. For example, the CFIB president’s commentary quickly fell apart when economist Armine Yalnizyan, an <a href="https://atkinsonfoundation.ca/atkinson-fellows/">Atkinson Fellow</a> on the Future of Work, <a href="https://twitter.com/ArmineYalnizyan/status/1284096946874068998">took a closer look</a> at the CFIB survey data. </p>
<p>The hardest jobs to fill were in meatpacking, hospitality and food processing, all jobs identified as <a href="https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-class-divide-the-jobs-most-at-risk-of-contracting-and-dying-from-covid-19-138857">high-risk for COVID-19 transmission</a>. It’s not that workers prefer a measly $500 a week over their regular paycheque. It’s that they feared for their lives.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A man wearing a mask carries a sign that says lives are more important than profits outside a Cargill meat-processing plant." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/351658/original/file-20200806-18-141pf4r.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/351658/original/file-20200806-18-141pf4r.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351658/original/file-20200806-18-141pf4r.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351658/original/file-20200806-18-141pf4r.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351658/original/file-20200806-18-141pf4r.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351658/original/file-20200806-18-141pf4r.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351658/original/file-20200806-18-141pf4r.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Protesters stand on the side of the road as workers return to the Cargill beef processing plant in High River, Alta., that was closed for two weeks because of a COVID-19, in May 2020.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>In 1959, <em>New York Post</em> columnist Irwin Ross sought to pull back the curtain on PR in <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/image-merchants-the-fabulous-world-of-public-relations/oclc/4840671&referer=brief_results"><em>The Image Merchants: The Fabulous World of Public Relations</em></a>.</p>
<p>“In an atmosphere drenched with the clichés of public relations,” he wondered in his book, how could anyone discern truth? </p>
<p>Today’s public relations techniques can be used by just about anyone. They are taken up by a host of organizations, from large corporations to unions to activist groups. </p>
<p>But the organizations that can most afford to hire expensive professionals stack the deck against smaller groups and officials. Even in the 1950s, “the biggest budgets, the highest priced and usually most expert talent are maintained by industry,” Ross wrote.</p>
<p>PR, he concluded, is a fundamentally hollow, anti-democratic enterprise. Corporate interest groups and politicians may state their commitments to the public good, but their real goal remains the “public acceptance of the status quo in our economic arrangements.” </p>
<p>Faced with a global pandemic that is laying bare the gross inequities of Canadian society, we would do well to heed his warning.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/143230/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dan Guadagnolo does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Public relations is a form of manipulation, used to shift public opinion. It is expressly designed to benefit the organization wielding it, something we’d be wise to remember during the pandemic.Dan Guadagnolo, Postdoctoral Fellow in American Studies, University of TorontoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1431682020-08-09T11:22:06Z2020-08-09T11:22:06ZCOVID-19: Financial future grim for Canadians with disabilities, health conditions<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/351304/original/file-20200805-22-shgel.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C1920%2C1040&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The COVID-19 pandemic has put people with disabilities and chronic health conditions in a precarious position.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Pixabay)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>As Canadians, we like to think we’ve done a <a href="https://www.vox.com/2020/5/4/21242750/coronavirus-covid-19-united-states-canada-trump-trudeau">far better job</a> responding to COVID-19 than other places, including our <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/daily-covid-deaths-per-million-7-day-average?country=CAN%7EDEU%7ESWE%7EUSA">neighbour to the south</a>. </p>
<p>Our relative success lies in swift responses to and consistent messaging about the pandemic in non-partisan ways. Nationwide physical distancing measures were done in consultation with public health officials, resulting in a national shutdown beginning in March 2020. Our understanding and approach to the pandemic has also led to a relatively more cautious recovery. </p>
<p>Consistent economic support was also an important pillar of the federal government’s response to COVID-19. Canadian wage earners out of work or at reduced hours received a taxable monthly basic income of $2,000 per month (the Canada Emergency Response Benefit known as the CERB), helping many Canadians face the resulting economic tumult. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-build-a-better-canada-after-covid-19-transform-cerb-into-a-basic-annual-income-program-140683">How to build a better Canada after COVID-19: Transform CERB into a basic annual income program</a>
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<p>But many groups have been left out of government policies and programs and are struggling. </p>
<p>At the University of Toronto and University of Alberta, we conducted a nationwide survey, to be published at a later date, that revealed Canadians with disabilities and chronic health conditions are very worried about getting COVID-19. </p>
<p>Respondents also said they feel like their voices aren’t being heard by policy-makers. They’re concerned about their long-term economic situation.</p>
<h2>Do not qualify for the CERB</h2>
<p>Many people with disabilities and health conditions who qualify for disability benefits do not qualify for the more generous COVID-19 benefits, like the CERB, even though the pandemic has imposed on them additional financial strains. </p>
<p>One immunocompromised respondent with multiple health conditions including diabetes, hypertension and obesity noted that they already live on $400 less than those getting CERB. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“They complain at how ‘little’ they are getting, all while telling us disabled that we should be grateful that we get as much as we do. Sorry, but how are we expected to permanently survive on this while they can’t survive even a few months on their savings and hundreds more than we get? Knowing that costs are going up, yet income is not going to for at least another four years is terrifying. I’m unable to work any time in the near future, so I am falling further and further behind with each passing day.” </p>
</blockquote>
<p>A lack of additional disability supports has meant that vulnerable groups have had to look to other means for supporting themselves through the pandemic. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="A weathered brown wallet stuffed with credit cards" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/351308/original/file-20200805-290-33329y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/351308/original/file-20200805-290-33329y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351308/original/file-20200805-290-33329y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351308/original/file-20200805-290-33329y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351308/original/file-20200805-290-33329y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351308/original/file-20200805-290-33329y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351308/original/file-20200805-290-33329y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">People are running up credit-card debt in order to cover their living expenses.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Pixabay)</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>We found that about 40 per cent of our respondents have added to their credit card debt since the start of the pandemic, and almost half say that the pandemic is negatively affecting their ability to pay their debts. </p>
<p>Over a third of our respondents say they are struggling to pay their rent, mortgage and utility bills because of COVID-19. Sadly, over half our sample say they are struggling to pay for groceries. </p>
<h2>Incurring extra costs</h2>
<p>An individual with a physical disability and who is also immunocompromised noted:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“There has been no additional financial support, but like everyone else, we are incurring extra costs for essentials as we need things delivered or help with everyday shopping and chores.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The pandemic is also limiting respondents’ abilities to prepare for future financial emergencies. Almost two-thirds of respondents say they are struggling to save money during the pandemic. Instead, many are having to dip into their savings to make ends meet. </p>
<p>A homemaker with chronic health problems told us she used $15,000 from her savings just to get by. With her husband unable to find work, she says:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“We just get further and further behind and there is no additional help. I get none.… What am I supposed to do? I feel very left out. I’m very depressed and feel like there is no hope. Every day when you think it can’t get any worse something worse comes up.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Even with comparatively better conceived and consistent policies in Canada, and relatively more generous social and economic supports to counter the negative effects of COVID-19, vulnerable people are still being left out.</p>
<h2>Too little, too late?</h2>
<p>Over a million Canadians have a <a href="https://www.canada.ca/content/dam/cra-arc/prog-policy/stats/dtc-stats/DTC-2018-tbl1-2018_e.pdf">Disability Tax Credit certificate (DTC)</a> and a significant majority of those are for an <a href="https://www.canada.ca/content/dam/cra-arc/prog-policy/stats/dtc-stats/DTC-2018-tbl3-2018_e.pdf">indeterminate duration</a>. Only recently, <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/department-finance/news/2020/07/government-introduces-legislation-to-support-canadian-workers-businesses-and-persons-with-disabilities.html">Carla Qualtrough</a>, Canada’s employment minister, proposed a onetime $600 payment to people with disabilities holding a valid DTC certificate.</p>
<p>That may be too little, too late. It certainly won’t be enough to mitigate the economic devastation the pandemic leaves behind. </p>
<p>People with disabilities in this country already experience low employment and low earnings, <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/cars.12268">living paycheque to paycheque</a>. They are also more likely to live in poverty. </p>
<p>Added setbacks during the pandemic could prove insurmountable as we enter into some sort of recovery, running the risk of further marginalizing people with disabilities and health conditions.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/143168/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Disabled Canadians and those with chronic health conditions have been left out of government COVID-19 policies and programs and are struggling financially.David Pettinicchio, Associate Professor, Sociology, University of TorontoMichelle Maroto, Associate Professor of Sociology, University of AlbertaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1417462020-07-20T21:18:20Z2020-07-20T21:18:20ZSex workers are criminalized and left without government support during the coronavirus pandemic<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/348475/original/file-20200720-31-1kyk4vy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=86%2C137%2C2317%2C1594&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The red umbrella is a symbol used by sex worker activists to draw attention to the work conditions and human rights of people in the sexual service industry.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Paid sexual labour is a form of employment that most people generally don’t think about. From street workers to escorts to exotic masseuses, jobs in the sexual services industry have been disrupted during the coronavirus pandemic — that is, if they wish to keep themselves safe. </p>
<p>These workers have little in the way of job security. Most <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/hamilton/swap-hamilton-1.5517795">are unable to receive</a> federal income relief and many have to <a href="https://canoe.com/news/national/sex-workers-say-theyve-been-left-out-of-canadas-covid-19-response">continue working</a> despite the risks. During the current pandemic, what happens to people whose job requires physical intimacy?</p>
<h2>Non-accessible COVID-19 relief</h2>
<p>Most sex workers do not qualify for <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/benefits/apply-for-cerb-with-cra.html">the Canada Emergency Response Benefit</a> (CERB) because they cannot prove they have <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/entry/sex-workers-coronavirus-cerb_ca_5e9cb5dcc5b60806d73fa781">earned at least $5,000</a> in the past year. Due to <a href="https://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/rp-pr/other-autre/c36faq/">federal criminal laws</a> around prostitution, even those who can provide such proof <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/entry/sex-workers-coronavirus-cerb_ca_5e9cb5dcc5b60806d73fa781">are afraid</a> to apply and draw the attention of the authorities via their <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/investing/personal-finance/taxes/article-the-nuances-of-cerb-are-becoming-clearer-with-time/">CERB application</a> and/or the 2020 tax filing requirement.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-contact-tracing-poses-serious-threats-to-our-privacy-137073">Coronavirus contact tracing poses serious threats to our privacy</a>
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<p>Since sex workers typically are either <a href="https://doi.org/10.1300/J056v17n01_09">self-employed or work as independent contractors</a>, they are also not able to benefit from the <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/campaigns/covid-19-update/support-employers-cra-covid-19.html">Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy</a> (CEWS). There is no “employee” classification legally available for workers because the employee-employer relationships for this industry violates the “Material Benefit Offence” (s. 286) of the Criminal Code. As a result, <a href="http://web2.uwindsor.ca/courses/sociology/maticka/star/pdfs/safety_and_security_report_final_version.pdf">workers do not qualify</a> for the rights and protections typically afforded to workers categorized as employees </p>
<p>The exclusions for COVID-19 assistance are an echo of the charter rights violations that the Supreme Court found in <a href="https://www.pivotlegal.org/canada_v_bedford_a_synopsis_of_the_supreme_court_of_canada_ruling">Canada vs. Bedford (2013)</a>.</p>
<h2>Regulating prostitution in Canada</h2>
<p>Before Dec. 6, 2014, the exchange of sexual services for money or other forms of compensation between two consenting adults was legal. The Criminal Code of Canada, however, made it <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1755-618X.2011.01249.x">very difficult</a> for workers to conduct business without running into conflict with the law. In 2013, the Supreme Court <a href="https://owjn.org/2015/10/sex-work-laws-unconstitutional-canada-attorney-general-v-bedford-supreme-court-of-canada-2013/">unanimously ruled</a> that three sections of the criminal code pertaining to prostitution violated <a href="https://www.pivotlegal.org/canada_v_bedford_a_synopsis_of_the_supreme_court_of_canada_ruling">the charter rights of workers</a>. </p>
<p>To address the Supreme Court ruling, in 2014 the Harper government introduced <a href="https://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/rp-pr/other-autre/c36faq/">Bill C-36</a>. The new legislation targeted customers, making it illegal to purchase sexual services for money. Although selling sexual services remains legal, workers cannot <a href="https://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/rp-pr/other-autre/c36fs_fi/">advertise their services</a> nor can they communicate with customers regarding their services in a public place.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Two women, one in a bikini carrying a red umbrella, another in a red tank top, black skirt and red cowboy hat, carry a banner between them that says, 'Sex workers' rights are human rights.' There is a crowd a few meters behind them." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/348445/original/file-20200720-92332-1aps99i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/348445/original/file-20200720-92332-1aps99i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348445/original/file-20200720-92332-1aps99i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348445/original/file-20200720-92332-1aps99i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348445/original/file-20200720-92332-1aps99i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=535&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348445/original/file-20200720-92332-1aps99i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=535&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348445/original/file-20200720-92332-1aps99i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=535&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Women carrying a banner about sex worker rights in the Capital Pride Parade on Aug. 26, 2012, in Ottawa, Ontario.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Impact of criminal laws on workers’ lives</h2>
<p>Instead of enhancing workers’ rights and safety, Bill C-36 effectively <a href="https://theconversation.com/canadas-laws-designed-to-deter-prostitution-not-keep-sex-workers-safe-107314">criminalizes prostitution</a>, frames all sex work as <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/5970549/canada-sex-work-decriminalization/">exploitative</a> and all workers as victims of trafficking. In my research team’s <a href="https://books.google.ca/books?id=M6T7BwAAQBAJ&pg=PT221&dq=going+%27round+again:+the+persistence+of+prostitution-related+stigma&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjeofa7ysDqAhV2mXIEHdR1AngQ6AEwAHoECAAQAg#v=onepage&q=going%20'round%20again%3A%20the%20persistence">earlier work</a>, we found that this framing enhances the stigma tied to the industry, making it harder for adult workers to have the legitimacy of their labour recognized. In addition, it <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/5970549/canada-sex-work-decriminalization/">increases the dangers</a> workers may experience and makes it harder for them to protect themselves while on the job.</p>
<p>Criminal laws tied to the sex industry also affect the financial security of workers. Under most circumstances, there can be a <a href="http://web2.uwindsor.ca/courses/sociology/maticka/star/pdfs/money_matters_prnt.pdf">legitimating effect</a> resulting from government recognition of forms of labour, via filing taxes and holding <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/00224490509552256">municipal licenses</a>, to name a few options. However, to avoid coming to the attention of authorities and the associated risks (for example, surveillance, arrest, fines, jail time, lawyer bills), sex workers are less like to <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/even-sex-workers-need-to-file-a-tax-return-vancouver-group-offers-tips-as-deadline-nears-1.4576674">file taxes</a>, which means they cannot benefit from EI, CPP/QPP and now federal COVID-19 relief funds.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A neon sign says 'massage' in red capital letters with a green border." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/348447/original/file-20200720-133010-mfeule.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/348447/original/file-20200720-133010-mfeule.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348447/original/file-20200720-133010-mfeule.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348447/original/file-20200720-133010-mfeule.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348447/original/file-20200720-133010-mfeule.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348447/original/file-20200720-133010-mfeule.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348447/original/file-20200720-133010-mfeule.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Like other workers in the sexual service industry, massage parlour workers are also ensnared by the limits of the CERB and other income support programs.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock.)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Impact of failed campaign promises</h2>
<p>Even before COVID-19, <a href="https://www.ubcpress.ca/red-light-labour">research showed</a> the harmful impact of sex work policies like Bill C-36 that criminalizes customers. <a href="https://doi.org/10.3138/cjccj.52.3.285">As I noted</a> elsewhere, “The way to judge the justness of a state and its policies is by looking at how the most marginalized members of society are treated.” Despite a campaign pledge to reform Bill C-36, the Trudeau government <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/5970549/canada-sex-work-decriminalization/">has yet to act</a>. </p>
<p>As the economy begins reopening, the federal government is <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/public-health/services/diseases/2019-novel-coronavirus-infection/prevention-risks/measures-reduce-community.html">putting an emphasis on plans</a> that protect workers, customers and the greater community from the spread of the virus. But how this applies to sex industry workers is unclear. </p>
<p>Unlike the <a href="http://www.bccdc.ca/Health-Info-Site/Documents/COVID19_SexWorkersGuidance.pdf">B.C. government</a>, which provided COVID-19 work guidelines for sex workers in May 2020, there are no federal government work or return-to-work guidelines for this industry. Instead sex workers are left to fend for themselves or turn to <a href="https://www.maggiesto.org/covid19">local organizations</a> and advocacy groups for assistance. Once again, people working in the sex industry are at the end of the list of government priorities.</p>
<h2>Needed action</h2>
<p>In a country whose populace <a href="http://www.ekospolitics.com/articles/FG-2011-03-23.pdf">values science-based policy</a>, we need to engage in policy development that can better protect sex workers, combating <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-stigma-of-sex-work-comes-with-a-high-cost-79657">marginalization and stigmatization</a>, and improving the overall occupational health and safety of those working in the industry. Similar to <a href="http://espu-usa.com/espu-ca/wp-content/uploads/2008/02/nz-health-and-safety-handbook.pdf">New Zealand</a>, orienting sex work policy around <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1755-618X.2011.01249.x">harm reduction and labour rights</a> will enable us as a country to better address the needs and rights of workers.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1266065807710154752"}"></div></p>
<p>The short-sightenedness of Bill C-36 and a <a href="https://www.macleans.ca/news/canada/governments-have-failed-canadas-sex-workers-and-theyre-running-out-of-patience/">failure to enact promised change</a> by the Trudeau government is more apparent now than ever. By fulfilling their campaign promise to this labour sector, the federal Liberals could deliver protection for people working in the sex industry, broadening the forms of labour protected by federal law. In doing so, people working in the sex industry will have their labour rights protected and will be less likely to <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/hamilton/swap-hamilton-1.5517795">fall through the cracks</a>, especially when government assistance is so urgently needed.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/141746/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jacqueline Lewis has received funding from Health Canada and the Social Science & Humanities Research Council (SSHRC). </span></em></p>Work in the sexual services industry has been disrupted by the coronavirus pandemic and workers have been left without access to government support.Jacqueline Lewis, Associate Professor, Sociology, University of WindsorLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1406832020-06-28T06:00:36Z2020-06-28T06:00:36ZHow to build a better Canada after COVID-19: Transform CERB into a basic annual income program<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/342996/original/file-20200619-43187-ga8whc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C114%2C5870%2C3796&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Justin Trudeau's government initiated the Canadian Emergency Response Benefit to help people who lost their jobs during the pandemic. Why not make such a program permanent?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>This story is <a href="https://theconversation.com/ca/topics/canada-after-covid-19-89000">part of a series that proposes solutions</a> to the many issues exposed during the coronavirus pandemic and what government and citizens can do to make Canada a better place.</em></p>
<p>COVID-19 has prompted the federal government to support individuals through the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB). Simultaneously, <a href="https://www.basicincomecanada.org/tags/basic_income">advocacy for a basic annual income</a> has exploded, with <a href="https://www.macleans.ca/opinion/will-this-pandemics-legacy-be-a-universal-basic-income/">some suggesting the CERB</a> could evolve into a basic income.</p>
<p>Basic income has become the Swiss Army knife of social policy. Beyond offering sufficient income to manage the daily expenses of living, advocates believe it will improve <a href="https://utpjournals.press/doi/pdf/10.3138/cpp.37.3.283">health and psychological outcomes</a>, enhance <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socec.2004.09.051">distributive justice</a>, mitigate the <a href="https://ideas.repec.org/p/cbr/cbhttps://doi.org/10.1016/j.socec.2004.09.051rwps/wp496.html">employment effects of automation</a>, spur <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/13545700010022721">gender equality</a>, create <a href="http://link.springer.com/10.1057/9781137015426">true freedom</a>, improve the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/17530350.2018.1504227">esthetics of existence</a> and transform the <a href="https://doi.org/10.4324/9781351106139">relationship between people and work</a>.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/344920/original/file-20200630-103657-148i363.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/344920/original/file-20200630-103657-148i363.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=1067&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/344920/original/file-20200630-103657-148i363.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=1067&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/344920/original/file-20200630-103657-148i363.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=1067&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/344920/original/file-20200630-103657-148i363.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1340&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/344920/original/file-20200630-103657-148i363.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1340&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/344920/original/file-20200630-103657-148i363.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1340&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://theconversation.com/ca/topics/canada-after-covid-19-89000">Click here for more articles from this ongoing series</a></span>
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<p>I suggest a basic income program is necessary, but not sufficient, for a complete economic safety net.</p>
<p>My observations are based in part on the lessons from Canada’s two basic income experiments: the <a href="http://gregorymason.ca/mincome/">Manitoba Basic Annual Income Experiment (Mincome)</a>, which was conducted from 1974 to 1979, and the <a href="https://www.ontario.ca/page/ontario-basic-income-pilot">Ontario Basic Income Pilot (OBIP)</a>, a short-lived experiment by the former Ontario government of Kathleen Wynne that ended in 2018. I have been <a href="https://dataverse.lib.umanitoba.ca/dataverse/mincome">working with Mincome data</a> since 1981 and also served as a technical adviser to OBIP.</p>
<h2>Use of a negative income tax</h2>
<p>As with Mincome and OBIP, most proposals for a basic annual income rest on a <a href="https://mitsloan.mit.edu/ideas-made-to-matter/negative-income-tax-explained">negative income tax</a>. While an income tax requires people to pay money to the government, a negative income tax uses an individual’s most recent tax return to verify eligibility for the basic income and to calculate the monthly payment which is distributed to recipients by direct deposit. OBIP required applicants to file a tax return and have a bank account, so these are not unusual requirements for participants in a basic income program.</p>
<p>A negative income tax would offer a guaranteed payment for those whose income is below a certain level. For every dollar earned above this guaranteed amount, the basic income payment falls by a percentage until earnings reach a level sufficient to eliminate any payments.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/343852/original/file-20200624-132972-14fsbcd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/343852/original/file-20200624-132972-14fsbcd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/343852/original/file-20200624-132972-14fsbcd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=293&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/343852/original/file-20200624-132972-14fsbcd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=293&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/343852/original/file-20200624-132972-14fsbcd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=293&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/343852/original/file-20200624-132972-14fsbcd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/343852/original/file-20200624-132972-14fsbcd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/343852/original/file-20200624-132972-14fsbcd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Gregory Mason/University of Manitoba</span></span>
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<p>In Canada we already have a basic income for families with children in the form of the <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/employment-social-development/campaigns/canada-child-benefit.html">Canada Child Benefit </a>(CCB). If we use the OBIP model, a single parent with no income and two children under 18 could expect to receive around $27,000 from the basic income plus CCB (as well as a GST credit). A basic income would not need to provide for children, but it may create different support levels for <a href="https://www.ontario.ca/page/ontario-basic-income-pilot">couples and those with disabilities</a>. </p>
<h2>Must be a federal program</h2>
<p>Using the CCB as a guide, a first principle is that any basic income in Canada must be a federal program administered through the income tax system. The amount paid to each Canadian would be the same anywhere in Canada. To compensate for regional variations in costs, provinces could elect to create <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/child-family-benefits/provincial-territorial-programs.html">supplementary payments</a> administered by the federal government, as they currently do with the CCB.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/342998/original/file-20200619-43220-1p1skb7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/342998/original/file-20200619-43220-1p1skb7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/342998/original/file-20200619-43220-1p1skb7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/342998/original/file-20200619-43220-1p1skb7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/342998/original/file-20200619-43220-1p1skb7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/342998/original/file-20200619-43220-1p1skb7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/342998/original/file-20200619-43220-1p1skb7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Former Ontario premier Kathleen Wynne brought in a basic income pilot project, but the experiment ended when her government was defeated in 2018.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Christopher Katsarov</span></span>
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<p>If provincial social assistance programs treat the basic income as earnings, social assistance payments would fall to a low level, effectively offsetting much of the cost of a basic income. Many provinces offer extras as part of their social assistance programs, such as supplementary health and rental assistance. A basic income would not eliminate these, but may affect the level of support depending on how individual provinces fine-tune their economic safety nets. </p>
<p>This all seems simple, but there are practical and political challenges.</p>
<p>First, many Canadians do not file income tax returns. Indigenous people who are <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/aboriginal-peoples/information-indians.html">registered under the Indian Act</a> and earn income from First Nations-owned enterprises do not pay tax on that income. Social assistance recipients also do need not file. A basic income would therefore require government to expand <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/tax/individuals/community-volunteer-income-tax-program/need-a-hand-complete-your-tax-return.html">its existing proactive effort</a> to encourage low-income people to file tax returns.</p>
<p>Further, because income tax filings are annual, applicants whose income status changed during the year would need a way to qualify for a basic income between tax returns. The same online eligibility affidavit used by CERB is a solution for this problem.</p>
<h2>Impact on the incentive to work?</h2>
<p>We also don’t know how a basic income would affect a person’s incentive to find work, which is shocking considering the many millions of dollars consumed by studies since the mid-1970s to settle this very question. The problem is participants in all the studies knew the payments would end in a couple of years and did not disconnect from employment.</p>
<p>This uncertainty over how people will change their willingness to work when the basic income becomes permanent argues for starting with quite low payments — certainly lower than the CERB — and adjusting slowly as we “learn by doing.”</p>
<p>There’s another issue to consider. COVID-19 has stopped the income of many who own homes, cars and financial assets. Do we pay the same basic income to someone with hundreds of thousands of dollars of net worth — common for many who have lost their jobs due to COVID — as we pay to a homeless person living under an overpass in a cardboard box?</p>
<p>I think not. Owning assets such as a house or car after reaching a threshold value should disqualify someone from the basic annual income.</p>
<p>Mincome was the only <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/145685">negative income tax experiment</a> to adjust payments based on both income and net worth. In the ‘70s, social assistance programs commonly required applicants to liquidate their assets before applying for support. Nowadays, applicants may have a modest degree of wealth and still qualify for social assistance payments.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/343000/original/file-20200619-43214-1kxaqop.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/343000/original/file-20200619-43214-1kxaqop.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/343000/original/file-20200619-43214-1kxaqop.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/343000/original/file-20200619-43214-1kxaqop.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/343000/original/file-20200619-43214-1kxaqop.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=525&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/343000/original/file-20200619-43214-1kxaqop.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=525&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/343000/original/file-20200619-43214-1kxaqop.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=525&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">The Canada Revenue Agency would play a central role in a permanent basic income program.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>Most Canadians would agree that anyone with a certain level of net worth should draw this down before qualifying for the basic income. As an example, using the support levels for a single person used by OBIP, a possible threshold is $100,000 in net worth (equity in a home, cars, savings), above which someone would become ineligible for the basic income.</p>
<h2>No need to liquidate assets</h2>
<p>One need not sell the home in times of adversity because <a href="https://www.investopedia.com/mortgage/reverse-mortgage/">reverse annuity mortgages</a> offer a method for accessing home equity to support the household.</p>
<p>The principle is clear — a basic income is the last line in the economic safety net. </p>
<p>Finally, aside from Canada Revenue Agency’s role in eligibility determination and payments administration, its scope of operations will increase through the need to track changes to net worth and to verify claims of a changed income between tax filings. Audits of recipients will also become more frequent to maintain the integrity of the program and to secure the political support of the majority of Canadians who are not receiving the basic income.</p>
<p>Compared to chasing scofflaws and the uber-rich, audits of poor people seems extreme, but <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/7053486/cra-cerb-snitch-line-scammers/">recent concerns about the possible fraud</a> in the CERB illustrates the need.</p>
<p>A basic income is possible for Canada. By creating a federal program as the backbone, with provinces offering top-ups and other poverty supports, developing the needed administrative processes and implementing the program over five years, we can get it done.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/140683/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gregory C Mason does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The relative success of the CERB during the pandemic shows the time is finally right for a permanent basic annual income program.Gregory C Mason, Associate Professor of Economics, University of ManitobaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1363602020-05-12T14:24:38Z2020-05-12T14:24:38ZThe coronavirus reveals the necessity of Canada’s migrant workers<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/333705/original/file-20200508-49573-1bd5p5s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=31%2C0%2C3000%2C2137&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A temporary foreign worker from Mexico plants strawberries on a farm in Mirabel, Que., on May 6, 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The COVID-19 pandemic has shone a light on a previously hidden population of workers in Canada: temporary migrants.</p>
<p>Temporary migrants come to Canada to work in industries such as agriculture, food services, hospitality and care-giving, in jobs that are often characterized by low wages and difficult working conditions. They are jobs that Canadians are not willing to do. </p>
<p>These workers are often largely invisible to many Canadians, located either in geographically isolated areas, like farms, or indistinguishable at a glance from local working populations. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/migrant-workers-face-further-social-isolation-and-mental-health-challenges-during-coronavirus-pandemic-134324">Migrant workers face further social isolation and mental health challenges during coronavirus pandemic</a>
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<p>Before the current wave of news stories about migrant labour during the COVID-19 pandemic, many Canadians may not have known about this workforce at all. The pandemic has not only made them more visible, but has also highlighted the essential nature of the work these migrants do.</p>
<h2>We’ve relied on migrant workers for decades</h2>
<p>Canada has enabled the temporary migration of low-wage workers since the 1960s. The <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/employment-social-development/services/foreign-workers/agricultural/seasonal-agricultural.html">Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program</a> (SAWP), a cyclical temporary migrant labour program operated on the basis of bilateral agreements between Canada and countries like Mexico, has existed for more than <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/migrant-workers-who-they-are-where-they-re-coming-from-1.1137930">50 years</a>.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/employment-social-development/services/foreign-workers.html">Temporary Foreign Worker Program</a> allows migrants temporary residence in Canada to fill jobs in industries with specific labour shortages — such as food services, hospitality, agriculture and caregiving. It’s been in effect since <a href="https://www.ourcommons.ca/Content/Committee/421/HUMA/Reports/RP8374415/humarp04/humarp04-e.pdf">the 1970s</a>.</p>
<p>These programs bring <a href="https://open.canada.ca/data/en/dataset/76defa14-473e-41e2-abfa-60021c4d934b">tens of thousands</a> of migrant workers to Canada each year. They spend months, sometimes years, away from their families and their homes. For most, their time working in Canada cannot be used to apply for permanent <a href="https://www.policyalternatives.ca/publications/commentary/work-life-when-does-temporary-become-permanent">immigration</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/331975/original/file-20200501-42908-1q26z38.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=333%2C160%2C3295%2C2176&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/331975/original/file-20200501-42908-1q26z38.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/331975/original/file-20200501-42908-1q26z38.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/331975/original/file-20200501-42908-1q26z38.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/331975/original/file-20200501-42908-1q26z38.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=497&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/331975/original/file-20200501-42908-1q26z38.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=497&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/331975/original/file-20200501-42908-1q26z38.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=497&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Migrant workers from Mexico maintain social distancing as they wait to be transported to Québec farms after arriving at Trudeau Airport on April 14, 2020 in Montréal.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ryan Remiorz</span></span>
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<p>Some workers have been coming to Canada under the SAWP <a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/migrants/2017/10/05/hes-worked-legally-in-canada-for-37-years-but-the-government-considers-him-temporary.html">for decades</a>, for example. Every year, they spend up to eight months in Canada, away from their families, harvesting crops for Canadian dinner tables. Every year, we hear about abuses in this program. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/migrant-farm-workers-vulnerable-to-sexual-violence-95839">Migrant farm workers vulnerable to sexual violence</a>
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<p>Yes, these workers earn an income and are able to send money home to their families. Yes, their work in Canada is considered by some to be an improvement over available jobs in Mexico. But it remains work <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/canada-s-migrant-farm-worker-system-what-works-and-what-s-lacking-1.1142489">that is undervalued</a> by Canadian standards.</p>
<h2>Canadian farmers need migrant workers</h2>
<p>In the current pandemic, the essential nature of the work done by temporary migrants has been brought into sharp focus. <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/temporary-foreign-workers-alberta-1.5523916">Concerns</a> about how current border closures and travel restrictions would impact the migrant workforce in the agriculture industry were raised by farmers across the country. </p>
<p>They feared the collapse of their crop, their business and their own livelihood if migrant workers were not permitted to come to Canada this season. Currently, temporary workers <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/employment-social-development/services/foreign-workers/notice-covid-19.html">are being allowed to continue travelling to Canada</a> but there have been delays.</p>
<p>For some products, <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/article-flight-of-the-beekeepers-nicaraguan-workers-crucial-to-canadas-food/">such as honey</a>, the specialized skills and knowledge of migrant workers was further highlighted as essential, given the length of time that would be required to train a new workforce in that industry.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/331982/original/file-20200501-42908-1vfjq8v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/331982/original/file-20200501-42908-1vfjq8v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/331982/original/file-20200501-42908-1vfjq8v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/331982/original/file-20200501-42908-1vfjq8v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/331982/original/file-20200501-42908-1vfjq8v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/331982/original/file-20200501-42908-1vfjq8v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/331982/original/file-20200501-42908-1vfjq8v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Some migrant workers have honey production skills and knowledge that are lacking in Canada.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Unsplash)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Now that migrant workers have been spotlighted, as well as the true value of the work they do in Canada and for Canadians, it’s time Canada dramatically improved their <a href="https://metcalffoundation.com/publication/made-in-canada-how-the-law-constructs-migrant-workers-insecurity/">working conditions</a>, their pay, their legal rights and their opportunity to immigrate to Canada. </p>
<p>Although migrant workers are not paid less than Canadian counterparts, one of the hallmarks of the Canadian jobs they fill is low wages. This is especially so in industries that are predominantly made up of migrant workers, like agriculture and in-home caregiving. </p>
<p>The value of these industries and their workers is clear, and their wages should be increased to reflect that.</p>
<p><a href="https://ccrweb.ca/sites/ccrweb.ca/files/reportcards_complete_en.pdf">Employment rights violations,</a> including wage violations, against migrant workers is widespread and well-documented. There is often little proactive enforcement and labour inspections in these workplaces. </p>
<p>Some provinces have adopted legislation requiring employers of migrant workers to register with provincial authorities, including <a href="https://web2.gov.mb.ca/laws/statutes/ccsm/w197e.php">Manitoba</a>, <a href="https://www.saskatchewan.ca/residents/moving-to-saskatchewan/immigrating-to-saskatchewan/protection-for-immigrants-and-foreign-workers">Saskatchewan</a> and <a href="http://www.bclaws.ca/civix/document/id/complete/statreg/18045">British Columbia</a>. </p>
<p>These registries provide provincial authorities with employer information that can and should be used for better and more regular inspections and audits. That helps protect migrant workers and ensure their employment rights are being respected. For provinces without this kind of legislation, tracking down where migrant workers are employed is more challenging, making inspections and audits more difficult to conduct pro-actively.</p>
<h2>No path to citizenship</h2>
<p>Finally, migrant workers may spend a big portion of their lives in Canada, yet most in low-wage occupations are not eligible to apply for permanent immigration based on that work experience, an immigration option available for migrants in <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/employment-social-development/services/foreign-workers/permanent.html">skilled occupations</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/331976/original/file-20200501-42946-18r530a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=724%2C369%2C3922%2C2751&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/331976/original/file-20200501-42946-18r530a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/331976/original/file-20200501-42946-18r530a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/331976/original/file-20200501-42946-18r530a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/331976/original/file-20200501-42946-18r530a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=522&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/331976/original/file-20200501-42946-18r530a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=522&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/331976/original/file-20200501-42946-18r530a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=522&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Migrant workers travel to Canada every year and may spend large parts of their lives in Canada, but most of them aren’t able to become citizens.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ryan Remiorz</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As the current pandemic has demonstrated, migrant workers in low-wage occupations are just as vital to the Canadian economy as skilled workers, and should similarly be given the opportunity to permanently immigrate. </p>
<p>A recent federal <a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2019/07/12/new-immigration-program-offers-migrant-farm-workers-pathway-to-permanent-residence.html">pilot project</a> for agricultural workers is doing just that, and will hopefully be expanded in the future.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/136360/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bethany Hastie receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, Law Foundation of British Columbia, and Canadian Bar Association. She is affiliated with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives - BC. </span></em></p>Now that the pandemic has made migrant workers visible in Canada, as well as the true value of the work they do, it’s time to dramatically improve their working conditions.Bethany Hastie, Assistant Professor, Law, University of British ColumbiaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1363582020-05-06T12:43:46Z2020-05-06T12:43:46ZCanada’s Emergency Response Benefit does nothing for migrant workers<p>The aim of the <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/services/benefits/ei/cerb-application.html">Canada Emergency Response Benefit</a> (CERB) is to offer vital income support to those temporarily out of work as a result of COVID-19. More than <a href="https://newsinteractives.cbc.ca/live-blog/covid-19-trudeau-update-april17">7.5 million</a> payments have already been deposited and applications continue to rise. </p>
<p>Yet the CERB stops short of supporting all essential workers. </p>
<p><a href="https://migrantworkersalliance.org/">Migrant Workers Alliance for Change</a> estimates there are <a href="https://www.nationalobserver.com/2020/04/17/news/migrant-and-undocumented-workers-plead-help-during-covid-19">1.8 million</a> migrants and undocumented people in Canada. Present in nearly every area of Canada’s economy, <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/01/27/799402801/canada-wins-u-s-loses-in-global-fight-for-high-tech-workers?t=1587296749557">from tech</a> to <a href="https://www.columbiavalleypioneer.com/news/high-demand-a-look-into-how-undocumented-foreign-workers-fill-b-c-s-construction-jobs/">construction</a>, they are over-represented in sectors that provide essential services at low pay — sectors like agriculture, in which <a href="https://www.nationalobserver.com/2020/04/15/news/bc-fruit-growers-skeptical-out-work-canadians-will-want-labour-intensive-farm-jobs">few Canadians</a> choose to work.</p>
<p>Each year in Canada, some <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/article-canadas-food-supply-at-risk-as-pandemic-tightens-borders-to-farm/">60,000 migrant farm workers</a> plant, prune and harvest fresh fruits and vegetables for domestic consumption and foreign export. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/330384/original/file-20200424-163110-1vaxkkm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C318%2C3000%2C1890&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/330384/original/file-20200424-163110-1vaxkkm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=444&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/330384/original/file-20200424-163110-1vaxkkm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=444&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/330384/original/file-20200424-163110-1vaxkkm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=444&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/330384/original/file-20200424-163110-1vaxkkm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=558&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/330384/original/file-20200424-163110-1vaxkkm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=558&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/330384/original/file-20200424-163110-1vaxkkm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=558&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Workers prune fruit trees in Pereaux, N.S., on in April 2016.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Andrew Vaughan</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Others mind the young, elderly and ill in residences and care homes across the country. Many are employed to clean and sanitize our most private spaces. </p>
<p>According to the World Health Organization, <a href="https://www.who.int/news-room/detail/31-03-2020-ohchr-iom-unhcr-and-who-joint-press-release-the-rights-and-health-of-refugees-migrants-and-stateless-must-be-protected-in-covid-19-response">migrants share common vulnerabilities</a> that heighten their risk of infection. These include reduced access to health care, unsanitary working conditions and overcrowded housing. They are also frequent targets of racism, xenophobia and scapegoat rhetoric, forms of discrimination that worsen in times of crisis and to which <a href="https://theconversation.com/canadian-politicians-are-playing-a-dangerous-game-on-migration-101668">Canada is not immune</a>. </p>
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<p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-is-not-the-great-equalizer-race-matters-133867">Coronavirus is not the great equalizer — race matters</a>
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</em>
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<p>While not a cohesive group, together they make up some of Canada’s most marginalized workers.</p>
<p>By excluding undocumented people and many migrants who don’t have social insurance numbers, the CERB redraws notions of “essential work” along nationalist lines. This ignores the essential labour and needs of these critical members of Canadian society.</p>
<h2>Out of work and stuck abroad</h2>
<p>The CERB also leaves out many essential migrant workers affected by border closures, administrative delays and flight cancellations. </p>
<p>Perla G. Villegas is an organizer with <a href="https://ramaokanagan.org/">Radical Action for Migrants in Agriculture</a>, a migrant justice collective that I co-founded alongside Amy Cohen in the Okanagan Valley in British Columbia. In recent weeks, Villegas has spoken to countless workers — long-time participants in Canada’s <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/employment-social-development/services/foreign-workers/agricultural/seasonal-agricultural.html">Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program</a> — whose visas have been delayed as a result of COVID-19. </p>
<p>Despite their temporary status, migrant farmworkers are “<a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/employment-social-development/services/foreign-workers/agricultural/seasonal-agricultural.html">permanently temporary</a>,” returning to Canada each year for decades. Multiple members of a single family sometimes work on Canadian farms, increasing their family’s dependence on the income they generate here.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Imagine having worked 15 seasons, spending eight months of each year in Canada, and being ineligible for income assistance? They have come to Canada for so long that they don’t have stable work in Mexico, so they don’t have a regular income there. It’s obvious that they have temporarily lost their jobs, but while they remain outside of the country, they can’t apply.” </p>
</blockquote>
<p>While Canada is not alone in its exclusion of certain migrant populations from assistance during COVID-19, some countries are taking steps in the right direction.</p>
<p>Portugal has been hailed for temporarily granting <a href="https://www.euronews.com/2020/03/29/coronavirus-portugal-grants-temporary-citizenship-rights-to-migrants">citizenship rights</a> to migrants and asylum seekers with residency applications underway, but this move <a href="https://jacobinmag.com/2020/04/coronavirus-portugal-regularize-migrants-citizenship-covid-health">does not include</a> undocumented migrants. Initiatives in California to provide economic assistance to migrants also <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/04/covid-19-california-give-payments-undocumented-immigrants-200415210239065.html">fall short</a>, reaching just 150,000 of the state’s two million undocumented people. </p>
<h2>Upholding migrant rights through policy</h2>
<p>Prime Minister Justin Trudeau recently <a href="https://www.macleans.ca/news/canada/justin-trudeau-canada-coronavirus-april-17-full-transcript/">paid homage</a> to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms on its 38th anniversary. “As our country confronts this pandemic, I’m especially grateful that Canadians have chosen to protect each other and care for one another,” he said. </p>
<p>Such words ring hollow while essential migrant and undocumented workers are forsaken by federal policy. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/330403/original/file-20200424-163088-1lyksbt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/330403/original/file-20200424-163088-1lyksbt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=421&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/330403/original/file-20200424-163088-1lyksbt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=421&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/330403/original/file-20200424-163088-1lyksbt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=421&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/330403/original/file-20200424-163088-1lyksbt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=530&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/330403/original/file-20200424-163088-1lyksbt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=530&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/330403/original/file-20200424-163088-1lyksbt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=530&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Migrant workers from Mexico maintain social distancing as they wait to be transported to Québec farms on April 14, 2020 in Montréal.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ryan Remiorz</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The CERB provides many Canadians with the economic cushioning they will need to survive the difficult months to come. But its disregard for some of our marginalized workers — those integral to our food production and security, health-care and construction and cleaning industries — reveals just <a href="https://www.thestar.com/opinion/star-columnists/2020/04/17/canada-needs-its-migrant-workers-but-in-this-pandemic-we-cant-be-bothered-to-value-them.html">how little we value migrant workers</a>. </p>
<p>In its recent news release appropriately entitled “<a href="https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=25730&LangID=E">COVID-19 does not discriminate; nor should our response</a>,” the United Nations Network on Migration urges that “migrants [be] included in measures that are being introduced to mitigate the economic downturn caused by COVID-19.” </p>
<p>Unprecedented times call for unprecedented measures. As <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/entry/canadians-ineligible-benefits-coronavirus_ca_5e9a6f15c5b63639081ec068?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAHRYOwMwF9Y3iHlEbiXg6hjG_IXBX71fTucpL4g1gW-zK2_XFJPiZTuPg9SpAI-qnCa278_IiiuYup5PKZIknpnmXMZ60XI_R8LkNqOf3jmcKikjMgDc6XIcUK87awFIFTnWzkNs6qqCMgQm-Bb5rn31qWtAjdJy2DLH_FgSM67u">CERB programs are expanded</a>, we must not minimize the labour and needs of migrant and undocumented workers. </p>
<p>Income support must be extended to everyone, regardless of immigration status. Anything less constitutes discriminatory policy and further marginalizes essential migrant and undocumented workers.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/136358/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Elise Hjalmarson is a Research Assistant for the European Research Council-funded project "Returning to a Better Place: The (Re)assessment of the 'Good Life' in Times of Crisis". She is also the co-founder of Radical Action with Migrants in Agriculture, a migrant justice collective based in the Okanagan Valley, British Columbia. </span></em></p>COVID-19 may not discriminate, but Canadian policy does. Income support during the pandemic must be extended to everyone, including migrant and undocumented workers.Elise Hjalmarson, PhD Candidate in Anthropology and Sociology, Graduate Institute – Institut de hautes études internationales et du développement (IHEID)Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.