Canada's NDP

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July 31st, 2020

NDP Statement on the end of the CERB

Jagmeet Singh, the Leader of Canada’s NDP, made the following statement:

“Today’s vague announcement of a parallel program doesn’t fix Employment Insurance for those who need it and fails to give Canadians relying on CERB any confidence to know they’ll be able to get the help they need when it expires for millions of people in the coming weeks.

Instead of laying out a plan to expand EI, the government has shared no details about what it will take to qualify or even how people can apply.

New Democrats have been saying from the beginning that this crisis has shown what many workers across the country already knew; the Employment Insurance program, as it stands, doesn’t cover all Canadian workers who need to access it.

Successive Liberal and Conservative governments have hijacked the EI premiums of hard-working Canadians to fund tax cuts for the wealthy. This is the perfect opportunity to finally right those wrongs, restore funding that has been cut in the last twenty years, and expand EI for all workers in need.

People want to work. But many jobs won’t come back by September. If people can’t go back to work, they need to know they’ll still be able to keep a roof over their heads and food on the table for their families.”