Cheques for laid-off workers will take time to arrive

Some Canadian businesses have no choice but to shut down, and others are following suit for safety and economic reasons. This is resulting in an extremely high number of layoffs throughout the country.

On Wednesday, the federal government announced that two new benefits are being created to help workers affected by the layoffs.

One is an emergency support benefit which helps unemployed workers who cannot qualify for employment insurance (EI). Another is the emergency care benefit made for workers who are not working because of sickness, because they’re caring for children who are out of school, or they are looking after another sick person. They cannot receive EI sickness benefits because they have not lost the amount of income required.

A specific timeline for the benefits was not included in the government's announcement, though they did note that applications would be open in April.

Finance Minister Bill Morneau noted that the government is working as fast as possible to get the benefit programs up and running though no solid estimation as to when checks will be received can be made at this time.

“We are working to get exact timelines as rapidly as possible,” said Morneau.

“The administration work is starting. We hope that will be enabling us to, within two to three weeks, make sure this is happening.”

When applications open in April, a processing period will still have to take place before workers can be approved and cheques can be delivered.

The finance minister noted that more information will be made available in a matter of days.

Some of the regular EI sickness requirements are also being waved by the government to make it easier for Canadians to claim them.

It usually takes approximately 28 days to start receiving EI sickness payments and the government has not said whether this period will be shortened or not.