David Ostrum is among many Canadians who have been caught in a bureaucratic Catch-22 right in the middle of the novel coronavirus pandemic.
The Victoria, B.C., cab driver says it’s been impossible to contact the federal government to provide the additional information Ottawa says its needs to keep his Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) payments flowing.
In Canada’s two-tiered CERB system, Canadians who applied for the federal benefit through Service Canada rather than the Canada Revenue Agency must file bi-weekly employment insurance reports to keep receiving payments of $500 per week.
Ostrum, however, hasn’t been able to keep up his filing requirements as he says Service Canada is still processing his first report.