Ottawa has extended the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) by another four weeks.
Officials announced Thursday that the 4 million Canadians still on CERB will be transitioned to either a new “simplified” Employment Insurance system or the new Canada Recovery Benefit as of September 27th.
They said the government is also creating a new sickness benefit and a caregiver benefit. It is estimated the total cost of the extension to CERB, the changes to employment insurance, and the three new benefits will be approximately $37-billion. The changes to Employment Insurance and the new programs will be put in place for one year.
It was also announced that Employment Insurance benefits will be frozen for two years.
