Over 7 million Canadians have applied for CERB in a month

The federal government revealed the most recent numbers Friday morning and found that $22.4 billion has been paid out so far from the $2,000 per month package, according to CP24.

Applications for the CERB relief were made available just over a month ago and since then there have been 7.12 million unique applicants to date. The program has an overall budget of $24 billion.

The CERB was implemented by the Trudeau government as one of several different programs to help Canadians deal with the economic hardships brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. Four of the programs that they have implemented have been met with criticism recently by Parliament's budget watchdog, Yves Giroux.

Yves Giroux said that a $25 billion dollar loan program for businesses will result in expenses to federal coffers of more than $9.1 billion dollars through different costs of interest, defaults and loan forgiveness.

The Trudeau government has additionally created the Canada Emergency Business Account which will offer interest-free loans for as much as $40,000 to help businesses cover their costs of operation. Up to $10,000 dollars of that loan will be forgiven if repaid before the end of 2022.