Stephanie Kalinowski Interviewed by CBC Kitchener-Waterloo on Eligibility for the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB)
Applications are now open for the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB).
In an interview with CBC Kitchener-Waterloo on April 8, 2020, Hicks Morley’s Stephanie Kalinowski responded to frequently asked questions of eligibility for the federal government’s CERB program.
Stephanie shared, “Initially, when the CERB was announced, it was intended to be something that would be payable to workers who would not be eligible for EI. For example, the self-employed, or those who needed to stay home to care for children, who could no longer go to daycare or school due to the emergency closures.
As the federal government evolved in its thinking … they seem to have decided to expand the emergency benefit and essentially replace EI with the CERB in order to get money into people’s hands much faster than they felt they could under the EI system.”