The federal government will automatically move the 2.1 million Canadians who have applied for employment insurance benefits since March 15 to the government’s Canada Emergency Response Benefit program, a move that could see many EI beneficiaries get more money every week.
The move is being done by a government less concerned with elegant program design and more concerned with getting money out the door fast.
That means that someone who applied for and started receiving an EI benefit after March 15 of, say, $350 a week, will, as soon as next week, start receiving the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) worth $500 a week.