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All of these ineligible workers should consider applying for relief under the second program, the CERB. It is available for up to four months to individuals who earned at least $5,000 from employment or self-employment in 2019, who cease working for reasons related to COVID-19 for at least 14 consecutive days and do not receive employment or self-employment income during that 14-day period.

The problem with CERB is the requirement that an individual must have “ceased working.” Consider the florist who works a few hours a day to try to drum up a few on-line sales, or the restaurant that offers only limited take-out service, or an employee whose hours have been cut to a fraction of pre-crisis levels. None of these people has ceased working completely.

Would the government really deny the $2,000 a month unless people stay home and do nothing? That would be silly: one of the objectives of the relief package is to keep people working and businesses operating to the extent they can.

Officials and employees at the Department of Finance have been working day and night, and we owe them all a debt of gratitude. But these rules need to be changed. In particular, the test for CERB should be amended so that someone who suffers a significant reduction in either employed or self-employed hours will — at a minimum — clearly be eligible for the $2,000. Otherwise, many workers will be left out in the cold, with no income support at all.

Allan Lanthier is a retired senior partner of an international accounting firm and has been an adviser to both the Department of Finance and the Canada Revenue Agency.