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MP Report

Financial help for Canadians

3/18/2020

1 Comment

 
Picture
When I first wrote on the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) three weeks ago there were 33 confirmed cases of
COVID-19 in Canada with 20 in Ontario, 12 in British Columbia and one in Quebec.


Last week those numbers had increased to 93 confirmed cases in Canada, with 36 in Ontario, 39 in British Columbia,
4 in Quebec and 14 in Alberta.


One death as a result of the disease had also been recorded in B.C.

This week the numbers are as follows: 701 confirmed cases in Canada with 212 in Ontario, 231 in B.C., 97 in Alberta, 94 in Quebec, 12 in Manitoba and the rest in other parts of Canada.

There have now been seven COVID-19 deaths in B.C.

One of the health challenges is, for a variety of different reasons, the tests for the virus are all at maximum capacity.

This means that as more capacity is added to increase the tests, numbers may continue to rise substantially.

At the same time, the Province of B.C. has declared a state of emergency with the City of Vancouver also proposing similar measures.

The reason why a state of emergency is called is to allow authorities to have more abilities to fight the spread of the virus.

This week in Ottawa, the Prime Minister announced up to $87 billion in financial assistance to help mitigate the financial impacts that COVID-19 will inflict upon Canadians.

The measures are vast but include temporarily increasing the Canada Child Benefit & GST credits,

EI entitlements for those who would not normally qualify and a labour payroll subsidy of 10% to small business owners.

Other measures include deferring the due date for individuals on personal income taxes. The return filing due date will be deferred until June 1, 2020.

In addition there will be a reduction in the required minimum withdrawals from Registered

Retirement Income Funds (RRIFs) by 25% for 2020.

The Government also proposed two new benefits.

First, the Emergency Care Benefit- which will allow for people directly impacted by COVID-19 to receive up to $900 dollars every two weeks for a maximum of 15 weeks.

This is to support workers, including the self employed, that find themselves in quarantine, looking after a family member such as an elderly parent or those parents with children requiring care due to school closures and are unable to earn employment income irrespective if they qualify for EI or not.

The second is the Emergency Support Benefit and is for Canadians who lose their job or face reduced hours and are not eligible for EI.

Unfortunately we do not know more, other than they have proposed 5 billion to fund this new benefit and at this time I cannot provide constituents more details.

Both of these new benefits will be available for application only through the internet via a CRA My Account,
​My Service Canada Account or through a yet to be disclosed toll free number.


This approach may pose positives and negatives.

The Prime Minister himself has suggested Canadians should stay home wherever possible in order to reduce exposure to the virus.

But on the other hand I am already hearing frustrations that the toll-free numbers for existing programs often result with citizens unable to get through.

While online access works for many Canadians, rural areas lack online access making this option potentially unworkable for some.

Lastly, is speed and responsiveness.

These new benefits will be open for application in April and people are concerned with whether or not they will qualify or if the payments are issued quickly for those wrestling with rent, grocery and medicine bills.

This is only a partial summary of the many measures put forward.

I will give credit to the Government for making efforts to have a comprehensive financial response.

My question this week is will these proposed measures help you?

I can be reached at Dan.Albas@parl.gc.ca or call toll free 1-800-665-8711.
1 Comment
George Seitz
3/18/2020 09:52:26 pm

I know I said yesterday I was sick of seeing posts on stats regarding the corona virus. People NEED TO GET A GRIP and here's why. As of today there have been 206,900 reported CASES WORLDWIDE. Almost 40% of those cases have been and are in CHINA, a country full of horrible living conditions plagued with unsanitary conditions and poor food preparation habits. Of those 206,900 reported cases 91,161 have been been closed with a 91% recovery rate leaving 115,739 open or infected CASES worldwide. There have been 8,272 DEATHS WORLDWIDE in total since it began in OCTOBER and again most in CHINA. The world population is approx 7.7 BILLION people.

Do the math please. 7.7 billion/8,272=930,851 meaning 1 in almost a million have died as a result of being infected so roughly 1.1 fatalities in a population roughly the size of Saskatchewan has died in the past 5 months from it. Does this seem like a pandemic when 2 people a day die just of opioid overdose a day in Canada? If you think so YOU are part of the problem and the reason the stores are sold out of products. The birth rate in the world far EXCEEDS the total death rate by about double. For those who believe in GOD this is his will. For those who believe in a new world order then martial law has just begun. For those who believe there is something bigger going on and this "pandemic" is a distraction you are correct and the swamp is being drained. Below are are a couple links showing stats to support the above.

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/ and https://www.worldometers.info/ AND https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHZusL4WD0g

DO NOT stop living over this. Take the same precautions you normally would during flu season or even a bit more but DO NOT PANIC. The only thing to fear is fear itself!!

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    Dan Albas is the Member of Parliament  for the riding of Central Okanagan-Similkameen-Nicola.
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