Doctors Nova Scotia surprised program paying doctors to isolate after COVID-19 exposure cancelled Flanagan said Monday the workers were left out of a program funded by the federal government that would boost their monthly take-home pay by up to $500.[ Sign up for our Health IQ newsletter for the latest coronavirus updates ]She says their jobs start at $14.70 an hour, which she says is not easy to live on in New Brunswick.A spokesperson for the Department of Social Development said in an email the program ended earlier this month and employees of third-party contractors were not eligible.Flanagan says the workers should be paid retroactively and that they took the same risks working on the front lines in a pandemic as employees with.