“Public servants have now processed over 10.15 million applications to date under the Canadian Emergency Response Benefit”, Qualtrough said.
The latest Government of Canada data shows that 7.26 million unique applicants have applied for the emergency benefit, including some 316,000 submissions this week alone. More than $18 billion worth of emergency income support has already been distributed.
The figures include those who applied for employment insurance and sickness benefits but were subsequently transferred to the Canadian Emergency Response Benefit program on 6 April, Employment and Social Development Canada said last week.
Last month, the government announced the establishment of the Canada Emergency Response Benefit program, a $1,400 taxable benefit for workers who have had their income streams affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The program is expected to cost $17 billion.
Canada has a labour force of 20 million people out of a working-age population of 31 million.
Earlier in April, Statistics Canada reported that more than a million Canadians lost their jobs in March, pushing the unemployment rate up 2.2 percentage points to 7.8 percent - the largest one-month increase since comparable data became available in 1976.
