NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh says he’s proud of the federal government’s financial help for those affected by COVID-19 but warns some of that help is coming too late or falling short of people’s needs.
Singh, who represents Burnaby South in Parliament, said he’s been happy to see the Liberal minority government agree to implement some of the suggestions from the NDP during one of the sharpest economic downturns in history.
“My biggest concern has been the lack of urgency. We’ve called for things weeks in advance of the government moving on them,” Singh said in an interview with the NOW.
In particular, he pointed to the federal government increasing the employee wage subsidy for businesses to 75% from the original 10% offered. The federal government has also expanded the eligibility to include any employer whose revenue dropped 15% in March and 30% in April and May.
Employment insurance has also been expanded, and deployment of EI has been hastened to assist those who have been laid off as a result of the current downturn. The Liberals also created the Canadian emergency response benefit (CERB) to catch self-employed people and others not covered by EI who have seen their personal incomes drop significantly or entirely.
But Singh said those measures still don’t capture all who have taken a financial hit, leaving some people in difficult situations.
Instead of the CERB, he said the federal government should have brought in a universal basic income – a model of providing a basic amount of money to all adults, working or not. Singh said that could then be taxed the following year for anyone who didn’t need it.
“But absent that, or second to that, it should be something that everyone can really access,” he said.
Thank you @theJagmeetSingh pic.twitter.com/iXQEpeGvlZ
— Don't Forget Students-N'Oubliez Pas les Étudiants (@dontforgetstdns) April 20, 2020
In an emergency parliamentary session on Monday, Singh said students especially continue to fall through the gaps.
“The reality is that the proposals that the government is talking about around Canada summer jobs or additional funding for summer jobs is not going to be enough,” Singh said. “Students no longer have an opportunity to work. … In this upcoming summer, those jobs won’t be available.”
Singh proposed the government change the wording of legislation to shift the benefit from those who have lost work to those who are unable to work, as many students have not been working during their schooling.
Singh also suggested the federal government could negotiate a pause on commercial and residential rents with the provinces if the Liberals mandated a pause on mortgages. So far, the federal government has allowed financial institutions to offer relief on a case-by-case basis, including by deferring mortgage payments by up to six months.
“Right now, we’re effectively asking everyone to be in a pause, but banks are still charging high interest rates on mortgages,” he said.
“That deferral (of mortgage payments) is not really working because it’s effectively making people pay interest on interest. So they’re going to come out of this worse off, rather than actually getting a little bit of help.”
