Parliamentary budget officer Yves Giroux estimates that extending the Canada Emergency Response Benefit by an additional eight weeks will cost the federal government $17.9 billion on top of what they've already spent thus far, according to CBC.
The additional eight weeks would bring the total of cost of the CERB to $71.3 billion, estimates Giroux in his latest report which was released Tuesday morning.
As of June 4, the CERB has paid out $43.51 billion to the 8.41 million Canadians who have applied for it which had already far exceeded the initial $60 billion budget for it.
The initial group of applicants who were approved for the CERB will be coming to the end of their 16-week period in early July. The Liberals have recently extended that 16-week max limit to help people financially through the summer, raising the limit to 24 weeks.
The newest estimated costs for the program will depend heavily on how the economy and the pandemic look in the coming months, wrote Giroux in the report. On top of that uncertainty is that the federal wage-subsidy program is outside of the CERB budget. The Liberals plan to retool that program as well in the coming weeks.
Separately, the C.D. Howe Institute also released a report in which they urge the Trudeau administration to utilize the extra time bought by extending the CERB to repurpose the program itself to include ways for recipients to retrain their skills for other jobs in a post-pandemic economy.
The report also called for an update to Canada's employment insurance system as it will likely face a spike in applicants in September. The Howe report also asked for the language used surrounding CERB recipients obligation to look or take work when "it is reasonable to do so" to be worded more clearly.
On Monday, Carla Qualtrough, Employment Minister and Tiff Mackelm, governor of the Bank of Canada warned Canadians that there is the possibility that many of them may not have a job to return to once the pandemic is over. According to Macklem, there are many businesses that will be unable to sustain themselves throughout the pandemic.
When both the CERB and wage subsidy program were first presented, it was the wage subsidy program that was expected to cost more, over $70 billion. The Liberals called it the largest social support program in Canadian history however a lot fewer companies applied for it than expected, the projected budget for it is now $45 billion. The government has approved $13.28 billion in payroll to 223,918 companies as of June 15.
Initially the Liberals' estimated to total cost of all pandemic-related aid packages to cost around $153.7 billion however Giroux estimates it to be closer to $169.2 billion.
Applicants for the CERB has gone up as unemployment continues to plummet with three million Canadians losing their job between March and April with the closure of non-essential businesses.
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