Show Notes:

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Lecture Slides:

Welcome to YouCounsel.

This video basically restates the information that is already available on the Government of Canada website in the form of a press release. I have provided a link to that website below – in the description of this lecture. If you have already seen that press release and understand what it states, then you don’t need to watch this video.  But, if you haven’t reviewed that information, then you are welcome to obtain that information from here.

In my previous lecture about employment insurance benefits with respect to Corona virus, we had covered two different kinds of benefits: Emergency Care benefits and Support benefits. What government has now done is simplified the process and sort of merged the two processes—the two benefits into one—which is now called emergency response benefits.  This lecture explains what those benefits are and who are the people who will be qualified for those benefits.

Again this lecture is not legal advice.  If you have any specific questions, you should contact a lawyer or a paralegal or in this case contact Service Canada for their information.

We will talk about 3 things.  I’ll explain how much benefits you will be entitled to under Canada Emergency Response Benefits. Who are the people who will be eligible?  What happens to people who have either applied for employment insurance benefits or are receiving employment insurance benefits?  

The amount of money you will receive under this plan is $2000 per month and this is taxable income. It will be paid every 4 weeks and it is only for up to 4 months—between March 15th 2020 to October 3rd 2020. Once you apply, the government believes that they will be able to make payment within 10 days of your application.  The portal for applying for this benefit will be available in early April. I believe you will be able to apply online and you will also be able to apply for it through a phone number—which the Government of Canada will provide.

The most important thing you want to note is that, this part of benefit is available to people who are eligible to receive employment insurance benefits and people who do not qualify for employment insurance benefits. You could be a self-employed person, not entitled to receive employment insurance benefits and yet you will be able to access these benefits and, of course, the people who are employees and remit employment insurance benefits, they will be entitled to it too.

This is the important part. It’s available to all.  What are the circumstances in which you will get these benefits? If you have lost your job due to Covid-19; if you are still employed, but not receiving any income, due to Covid-19; if you are sick, you are quarantined; if you are taking care of someone who is sick due to Covid-19; or if you are a working parent, who must stay at home without pay, please note that it is without pay, you are staying home to take care of your children who are either sick or who are at home because their school is closed or daycare is closed.

What happens to people who have applied for EI or are receiving EI? If you are already receiving regular / sickness benefits under the Employment Insurance Act, then you don’t need to reapply. If your regular benefits under Employment Insurance Act end before October 3rd 2020, and, you are still not able to return to work, then you will be able to apply for CERB. If you have already applied for employment insurance, but your application is not yet processed you don’t need to reapply you will get processed for these benefits.  Then employees who are entitled to receive regular sickness benefits or regular benefits or sickness benefits – they will be able to access normal benefits, if they are still unemployed after 16 weeks. This is for people who are eligible for regular benefits and once the 16 weeks has expired and they are still unemployed, they can then access employment insurance benefits.

As stated earlier, I’ll provide the link to the Government of Canada website. Please check that website frequently as the information may change. It has changed from the last few days that I have reviewed the website and if you have any questions please contact Service Canada.

Thank-you for watching.

Show Notes:

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Lecture Slides:

Welcome to YouCounsel.

This is an updated lecture on Canada Emergency Business Account for businesses and nonprofit organizations. The government has announced some changes to the eligibility criteria and there is some more information about the process of application that we would like you guys to know about. Please know that the changes that we have made from our previous lecture, they are all noted in blue, so you will be able to easily follow what changes we have made.

We begin with our usual disclaimer that this lecture is not legal advice. If you have any specific questions you should contact your financial institution, Export Development of Canada, contact a lawyer or a paralegal or the law society of Ontario for a referral.

The topics we will cover will be the purpose of this loan; we will talk about the eligibility; we will talk about some of its features and how to apply.

With respect to purpose: not much has changed.  It is a $40,000 loan for small to medium sized businesses or nonprofit organizations.  The loan is to be used for operational expenses that cannot be deferred. This is important.  These expenses could be rent, payroll, supplier bills, insurance, etc. Please note that you cannot use these funds for payment of your existing loans or indebtedness or refinancing or payment of dividends or distribution and increase to management compensations. These are some of the things that you cannot use the funds for.  Please make sure that the funds are used for the purpose that they are provided.

Now in order to get this loan the businesses must be eligible. What is the eligibility criteria and how it has changed? Let’s look into that. Previously you need to have paid anywhere from $50,000 to $1,000,000 in salaries to your employees in 2019. That has been reduced from $50,000 dollars to $20,000 and an increase on the other side up to $1,500,000. If you have paid at least $20,000 in salaries to your employees in 2019, you will be eligible. The business has to be in operation as of March 1st 2020. It must have a federal tax registration number and it must have an active business checking / operating account.

Now it is important to note, that this account has to be in the business’s name. For a lot of sole proprietors who do not have an account in the business name and they have been operating their business through their personal account—which is allowed—unfortunately they are not eligible. If you are in that situation you should contact your financial institution to see if there is a way to get over that obstacle. The account has to be open prior to March 1st 2020. You cannot open a new account in your business name to overcome this hurdle.  The account has to be in operation prior to March 1st 2020. The account cannot be in arrears on “existing borrowing” by 90 days or more. For eligibility you should not have used this program previously and you cannot apply again from a different financial institution. You also need to show or confirm the intention to continue your operations or if your operations are closed, to show the intention to resume operations.  You also need to agree that you will respond to government surveys or surveys conducted by agencies related to the government.

Let’s talk about some organizations that will be ineligible. These will be any organizations that are government bodies or organizations owned by government bodies.  Also a Union, charitable, religious or paternal organizations are not eligible or any entities owned by them are not eligible and the only exception is for organizations that are registered T2 or T3010.  These are for nonprofit or charity organizations that generate a portion of their revenue from the sale of goods or services. Any organization owned by individuals holding political office is ineligible and finally the organization must not promote violence, incite hatred or discriminate on the basis of sex, gender, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, religion, culture, region, education, age or mental or physical disability.

Let’s talk about some of the features of this loan—which we have previously explained. Number one: duration. It will be a revolving line of credit until December 31st 2020.  After that it will become a non-revolving loan.  A 5-year term which will mature on December 31st 2025. Respecting interest—there is no interest until January 1st 2023.  After that it will become 5 percent interest per annum which will be payable monthly. There is a 25 percent loan forgiveness opportunity here. If you have a balance as of January 1st 2021 and you pay 75 percent of that balance by December 31st 2022, then the remaining 25 percent is forgiven.

An example is if you have $40,000 balance as of January 1st 2021 and you pay $30,000 by December 31st 2022 – then $10,000 will be forgiven. In order to apply, you should contact your financial institution.  They all have online application processes available.  So please follow those processes and apply for these loans.

Hopefully, if you were not eligible previously, because of the new changes, your business is now eligible and you can benefit from this loan.

Thank-you for watching.

Show Notes:

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Lecture Slides:

Welcome to YouCounsel.

Today we will talk about Canada Emergency Business Account (CEBA). This is a program launched by the Canadian government to assist small businesses, medium sized businesses, nonprofit organizations and charities, in this difficult time due to Covid-19. We will explain the features of this program, the eligibility criteria, etc.

We begin with our usual disclaimer that this lecture is not legal advice.  If you have any specific questions regarding your issues, you should contact a lawyer or a paralegal or the Law Society of Ontario for a referral or your accountant or your financial institution.

We will explain the purpose of CEBA. We will explain the eligibility criteria and we will talk about some of the features. Then we will explain how you go about applying for this loan.

Essentially, if the loan is for $40,000 dollars and it is meant for small to medium sized businesses or nonprofit organizations or charities.  The purpose of the loan is to assist these organizations in their operational expenses that cannot be deferred. What are some of those expenses?  It could be your rent, could be your payroll, your supplier bills, insurance, property tax, etc. To qualify for this loan the business must be eligible.

Let’s talk about the eligibility criteria. It is pretty straight forward.  The business must have paid $50,000 to $1,000,000 in salaries to its employees in 2019. Non-profit organizations must have filed a T2 return, which is their annual return for the 2019 tax year.  Similarly, charities must have filed a T3010 return for the 2019 tax year.

Let’s talk about some of the features of this loan.  First of all the duration of this loan: until December 31st 2020 this $40,000 is considered a revolving line of credit. You can take the money out, put it back in.  After December 31st 2020, the outstanding balance converts to a non-revolving loan for a 5 year term and that term matures on December 31st 2025—that means that you need to pay back the loan by December 31st 2025.

Let’s talk about interest. What is the amount of interest on this loan? There is no interest until January 1st 2023. Starting January 1st 2023 you will accumulate 5 percent interest per annum, which is payable monthly.  25 percent of the loan can be forgiven.  How does that happen? Whatever your balance is as of January 1st 2021, whatever the balance amount is, if you pay 75 percent of that amount on or before December 31st 2022, the remaining 25 percent is forgiven. Let’s take an example.  Let’s say the balance as of January 1st 2021 was the entire amount $40,000 and you paid $30,000 on or before December 31st 2022, then the amount of loan that is forgiven is $10,000.

How do you apply for this loan?  It is pretty straight forward. You contact your financial institution, whether it’s RBC, Bank of Montreal, Bank of Nova Scotia, whatever the bank is, contact them, they have online applications available. You check the requirements and fill out the application and send it to your bank.  Then the bank will decide whether you are eligible for the loan and whether the loan is approved or not. If you’re a smaller medium sized business or a nonprofit organization, hopefully you will be able to take advantage of this loan in this difficult time.

Thank you for watching.

Show Notes:

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Lecture Slides:

Welcome to YouCounsel.

Government has announced additional changes for CERB, Canada Emergency Response Benefits. It has allowed additional people to be eligible.  Still not everybody’s eligible. But there are more people who are eligible.  Who are those people? How has the criteria changed?  This update is all about that. What we have done is, we have used the slides from our previous lecture and then all the changes that the government has made we have posted these in our slides in blue color so you can easily see what are the changes that have been made from the last time we provided a lecture on this.

We begin with our disclaimer that this lecture is not legal advice, if you have any specific questions regarding your issues you should contact a lawyer or a paralegal or Canada Revenue Agency with respect to Canada Emergency Response Benefit.

Now most of the criteria is the same. We will not go into too much detail about that. You need to be at least 15 years old, this is straightforward. You should be residing in Canada. Not much has changed with respect to residing in Canada, but there are some clarifications that we can post.  Temporary foreign workers are eligible, international students are eligible, permanent residents are also eligible.  I just wanted to point that out. The only requirement is that you should be residing in Canada and you should have a valid social insurance number and of course you meet the other eligibility requirements.

Now a number of people have asked this question that they were traveling overseas and for some reason they are stuck there and they are not able to return to Canada.  Are they still eligible, if they meet all the other conditions? I quite frankly do not know the answer.  No clarity has been given on the Government of Canada website. I would assume that the person is a resident of Canada and they have been temporarily stuck outside of Canada so they should be eligible, but you should contact CRA to confirm the answer to this question.

The requirement for $5000 has not changed.  To be eligible you should have earned $5000 gross income in the last 12 months or in 2019.  That requirement remains the same and the income should include employment income, self- employment income, if you have earned any maternity or parental benefits, all of those are included.

Previously the requirement was that you must have stopped work due to Covid-19 and that was the only requirement for eligibility and other reasons for stoppage of work would make you ineligible. That has changed.  But stoppage of work is still stoppage of work—due to Covid-19—is still one of the reasons that will make you eligible.  Some of the conditions were you have been let go from your job.  Previously it said that your hours have been reduced to 0—that is no longer the case because the current eligibility allows you to work certain hours based on certain income.  Or if you are in quarantine or sick due to Covid-19, you were away taking care of someone who was sick due to Covid-19, you are taking care of children who cannot go to daycares or schools because of Covid-19—all of these are stoppage of work and are reasons due to Covid-19.  But more importantly what I want you to note is that these are only examples. 

This is not an exhaustive list that relates to stoppage of work due to Covid-19.  There may be other circumstances in your case in which you are not working, somehow related to Covid-19, but the exact situation is not covered here and so you may still be eligible. The key thing to note is that you have not voluntarily quit your job.  Because, if you have done so then you will not be eligible for Canada Emergency Response Benefits.

The eligibility change as I noted in blue, is that people who are entitled to employment insurance benefits either regular or sickness benefits, they are now eligible for CERB. What does this mean? We’ll explain that by way of some example. Let’s say your stoppage of work is unrelated to Covid-19, but you are eligible to receive regular E.I. benefits.  Then, now you are entitled. Previously if your employment contract was ending, regardless of Covid-19, you knew that your employment contract is ending on May or June or earlier, then that’s the end of contract.  It had nothing to do with Covid-19.  That would make you ineligible for CERB.  But now you are eligible. Similarly, you may have received the termination notice of your employment months and months ago.  You may have received the notice sometime in August of last year that your employment would end in March of 2020 and that was obviously unrelated to Covid-19.  But because of this particular change, that government has introduced, now you are entitled to CERB.

Also, now if you are on sickness, E.I. sickness benefits, but the reason for sickness is unrelated to Covid-19, then you will still be eligible for CERB. Previously the reason for the illness had to be related to Covid-19, but now your reason for illness is not related to Covid-19.  You will still be eligible.

One more change the government has introduced for eligibility is for people who have exhausted their regular employment insurance benefits during a certain time period which is between December 29^th, 2019 to October 3^rd, 2020. These will be people who will also be eligible for CERB. Let’s explain that by way of an example as well. For example, if your employment was ended and you are now looking for work but you have received employment insurance benefits, regular benefits during this period between December 29th 2019 and October 3rd 2020, then you are now eligible for CERB. One of the examples could be that your stoppage of work occurred prior to Covid-19.  For example, you were terminated from your employment in July 2019 and you are entitled to regular E.I. benefits and those benefits continued beyond December 29th 2019, then you are still eligible. If those benefits expired prior to December 29th 2019, then you are not eligible.  Or if you were terminated because of unrelated reasons, unrelated to Covid-19, but you received regular E.I. benefits then you will get CERB.  You’ll be eligible.

This also applies to seasonal workers.  For example, a lot of construction workers work in the summers and then they receive E.I. benefits for a certain time period. If those people were receiving benefits between December 29th 2019 and October 3rd 2020 – any time in that time period, then they will still be eligible for CERB even though their end of seasonal work was unrelated to Covid-19.

Similarly, if you had received sickness benefits which were unrelated to Covid-19, but you were entitled to sickness benefits, E.I. sickness benefits, during this time period, then you will be eligible for CERB. The key thing, the thread, the common thread in this eligibility is that CERB is now being extended to people who have received E.I. regular or sickness benefits between December 29th 2019 and October 3rd 2020.

What are the changes made to income during the CERB period? There are certain changes.

It is important to note.  Previously what was stated was that your income in the initial 4 week benefits period (and initial 4 week periods if you recall started from March 15th and ran up to April 11^th), and then the requirement was for that 14, for 14 consecutive days your income had to be 0 in that time period. That has changed.  Now when you’re making your 1st claim, it is not tied to that particular 1st initial period.  Your 1st claim for the 4 week benefit period your income for at least 14 consecutive days should not exceed $1000.  And that is gross income. It is no longer 0.  As long as you have not made more than $1000 in 14 consecutive days in the 1st claim for your 4 week benefits, you are now eligible for CERB.

What does this term income include? This has been explained a bit more in detail.  Let’s go through that. Tips that people earn and declare as income that is considered income.  Non-eligible dividends these are basically monies that you receive from a corporation / small businesses usually, honoraria – this is usually for volunteer workers, royalties for artists—these are some of the examples of income.  Obviously, if you have earned salary or if you have earned your self-employment income, then that’s all income.  The same definition is used for the $5000 requirement.  What is considered income—the same definition applies here.  Please note that pension, student loans and bursaries are not considered employment income and they should not be included.

What about subsequent periods? Previously the requirement was that for subsequent periods your income had to be 0.  That is no longer the case.  Now the requirement is that your employment income should not exceed $1000 for the entire 4 week benefits period. If it is not exceeding $1000, then you are eligible for CERB. This is an incentive for people who are part-time or work less hours and want to continue working certain hours and earn some money.  The important thing is for people who are working part-time and earning less than $1000, the money from CERB is not top up.  It’s not that you are going to get additional money to complete the $2000, you will get the whole $2000. If you earn $1000.00 and you get CERB for $2000 that is $3000.  There is some advantage to people who continue to work part-time or for reduced hours.

Income from other benefits: what is stated is that if you are receiving, for example, disability payments or other provincial support payments or territorial payments, you need to look at your own provinces rules to see whether the rules allow you to get the support payments in addition to CERB.  Each province has to decide that.  What the government website states is that government has encouraged the provinces to allow people to keep both payments.  My understanding is that, so far, only British Columbia has confirmed that it will temporarily allow people to keep CERB and their disability payments or other social assistance payments.  But for other provinces I’m not sure. Please check with your province to see what the rules are with respect to both payments.

We’re talking about employment insurance or CERB – which one you choose or can you choose between the 2? If you are already receiving E.I. benefits whether regular illness, maternity or parental, you will continue to receive E.I. and if you were receiving less than $2000 a month the amount will not increase to $2000. It will remain whatever you are receiving.

If your E.I. expires before October 3rd 2020, as mentioned earlier, you can apply for CERB.  Previously the requirement was that your stoppage of work needed to be related to Covid-19.  Now that is no longer the case. If your E.I. expires prior to October 3rd 2020 you will be eligible for CERB. If you have already applied for E.I. you should not apply for CERB, it will automatically be converted to CERB, if you applied on March 15th or later.  But if you are eligible for E.I. before March 15^th, you will receive your regular E.I. benefits.  And if you are eligible for E.I. on March 15th or later you will receive CERB.  Now again the payment amount for CERB is fixed.  It’s $500 per week and that’s what you will receive. But if your E.I. is less and you are already receiving that lesser amount your E.I. will not increase.  You will not get CERB for that amount.

Let’s talk about this additional eligibility summary. Let’s summarize it.  Who are people who are now going to get CERB? People who have lost their job before Covid-19 or unrelated to Covid-19, but received regular E.I, between December 29th 2019 and or later but before October 3rd 2020. These are people who may not have previously been eligible, but now are eligible. People who are eligible for regular E.I. benefits.  People who are terminated from employment unrelated to Covid-19.  For example, end of contract, they are now eligible for CERB. People who are eligible for the E.I. sickness but their sickness is unrelated to Covid-19, they will be eligible for CERB now. Seasonal workers as I indicated who received regular E.I. until December 29th 2019 or later, until October 3rd 2020, they are now eligible for CERB.

Please note that there are many people who are still not eligible for CERB.  Some of the people who are still not eligible: people who have lost jobs before the onset of Covid-19 and did not qualify for E.I. These are people who did not have sufficient insurable hours to qualify for E.I.  They are not eligible. People who were out of employment for a certain time period and they are now looking for work—they are not eligible. People looking for work but did not receive E.I. between December 29th and October 3rd 2020, they are still not eligible. Part time people, reduced hours people who make less than $2000 but earn more than one $1000 a month they will not be eligible for CERB and, of course, people who did not earn $5000 in the last 12 months of 2019 they are still not eligible for CERB.

Finally, people who have who are receiving E.I., but their E.I. is less than $2000 a month, you’re not getting a top up, they’re not getting CERB. E.I. is what they are going to get.

Hopefully, this gives you some more clarity about what are the changes that have been made. I understand that a lot of people may still not be eligible and we hope that there may be additional changes that will cover people who are in the need of these payments and who may not be otherwise eligible.

Thank-you for watching.

Show Notes:

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Lecture Slides:

Welcome to YouCounsel.

As you may know, the Ontario government has passed an emergency order under Emergency Management and Civil Protection Act This is the Act the court does have power to pass that kind of order.  What are the implications of that emergency order on court proceedings on civil matters, criminal matters?  We will discuss that in today’s lecture.

We begin with our usual disclaimer that this lecture is not legal advice.  If you have any specific questions you should contact a lawyer or a paralegal, Law Society of Ontario or the Ontario Courts administration for further information.

We’ll talk about the implications of the emergency order on limitations period. We will talk about its implications on various timelines for court matters or tribunal matters. We will talk about the discretion of the court or tribunal in these matters.  Finally, we will talk about Notice to Profession that has been issued by the Ontario Courts.

Let’s talk about limitations period.  The emergency order suspended all the limitations period and the start date is retroactive from March 16^th, 2020. As of March 16th 2020 all limitations period are suspended.  How do you figure out the limitation period for your matter? This is something we’ll explain. Let’s assume that the suspension will end on June 14th 2020. I have selected that date randomly but it’s 90 days under the statute that I just showed you.  The government has the power to have the emergency for 90 days – up to 90 days.  If the government would like to extend that emergency order then it has the power to extend it. Or, the government can end the emergency sooner than 90 days. But let’s assume that for the purposes of today’s discussion let’s assume that the extension will run for the full 90 days. We know that for civil proceedings in Ontario you have generally 2 years to commence your civil action from the time that the injury occurred. Now in our 1st example, let’s assume that your original limitations period was going to expire on a date that was after the suspension ended – the original date was after June 14th 2020.

How do you calculate now the new limitations period based on the suspension? You take the original expiry date and then you simply add 90 days, which is the suspension time to it and that will give you the new expiry date. Take an example – where the original limitation period was going to expire on July 31st 2020 – what will be the new expiry date – it will be approximately October 30th 2020. You add 90 days to July 31st and you get the new expiry date based on the suspension.

Let’s take another example.  In this example the limitation period was originally going to expire during the suspension period time. It was going to fall on a timeline that is between March 16th 2020 and in our example June 14th 2020. How do you calculate the new limitations period?  Essentially, you take the suspension end date which is June 14th 2020 and then you add the remaining limitation days during the suspension that you previously had.

Let’s explain that by an example, with an expiry date as April 15th 2020. What will be the new expiry date? You have June 15th when the suspension ends.  Or, assuming, we’re assuming that it ends and then you add 30 days from June 15th. How do we get these 30 days that’s the timeline, that’s a number of days between March 16th when the suspension began and April 15th that was your original expiry date.  You had 30 days that are suspended.  You add those 30 days to June 15th and you get the new expiry date of July 15th 2020.

The same principles apply on the timelines in court proceedings.  Let’s take that by an example and to explain this.  Let’s say that you were served with a statement of claim and originally your statement of defense was due on March 30th 2020. We know that the timelines are suspended as of March 16th so what will be your new timeline for the statement of defense. The deadline will be June 14th is the expiry date for the suspension and then you add 15 days to it. 15 days is the time period between March 16th and March 30th. 15 days and then you get the new timeline for your statement of defense which will be June 29th 2020. These timelines will apply to either tribunal proceedings or court proceedings criminal matters, civil matter, family law matter, all of these are covered.

Let’s talk about court’s discretion. The emergency order indicates that a court or tribunal has the power to order a party to comply with a timeline or a time limit or a time table. Despite the suspension the court does have the power to enforce certain timelines.  This may happen in cases that are urgent matters and the court believes that the matter cannot wait till the end of the suspension and in that case the court will order. If you are part of that proceeding, then the lack of suspension or the cancellation of suspension for your specific matter will be by the order of a court. If you are involved in a matter which is an urgent matter and you want the other party to comply with the time line then, you will have to ask the court to give you an order and then you serve that order on that party to make sure that they comply with the court order.

Let’s talk about Notice To Profession. The courts have issued two notices to profession and public. What are these notices? These are courts’ instructions basically in terms of how they are managing different affairs in the court system. The 1st. Notice To Profession and Public was issued on March 15th – which was prior to the emergency order.  In that order – in that Notice the court had indicated that urgent matters were going to continue to proceed but all other matters, all other hearings were suspended.  I have provided the link for the Notice to Profession which was issued on March 15^th.  Here is the Notice of Profession and the link is available.  You can see that the court had suspended all the hearings during the suspension time but it talks about the procedure to bring urgent matters before the court.

The 2nd Notice was issued in April 2nd 2020.  It allowed again for urgent matters to proceed.  Also the courts indicated that certain selective matters will continue to proceed or will be allowed to proceed.  That link is also available.  Here is the Notice and it applies to different regions.  Let’s look at the one in Toronto.  You will see different criminal matters, family matters, are all indicated here, civil matters are indicated and then you will see that selected pretrial conferences will proceed certain motions, certain applications will proceed. By all means check on these Notices to see whether your specific matter can proceed under the circumstances or not.

Hopefully this gives you an understanding of how various court matters have been suspended and if you are involved in a court proceeding or you intend to commence a court proceeding, what will be the implications on various timelines in your case

Thank-you for watching.

Show Notes:

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Lecture Slides:

Welcome to YouCounsel.

This video shows you screenshots of an application process done online for Canada Emergency Response Benefit. This was shared to us by a subscriber, so I thought I’ll post a video so you can see beforehand what you will experience through the process of online application.

This lecture is not legal advice.  If you have any specific questions you should contact a lawyer or a paralegal or Canada Revenue Agency for this particular application.

Once you log into your CRA account—and you should have created the account by now—your   name will show up here.  This will be the page that you will see which says Covid-19 Canada Emergency Response Benefits. Information here states that the government will have access to your tax information for the purposes of CERB.  You click Apply.  It takes you to the next page which talks about direct deposit. If you will like the payment to be deposited directly in your account, make sure that you have set up the direct deposit information prior to starting this application.  If not, then, this application will send you again to input that information and then bring you back. But if you put that information before you come and apply for a CERB, then there will be great.

Based upon what you’re going to do you choose one of the options: (a) update my direct deposit information for CRA payments only.  (b) If you are also a recipient of CPP, then 2nd and 3rd option may apply to you. In any event choose the correct option.  Click next. Then it will take you to the eligibility page. This is the same eligibility criteria that I had explained to you in my previous lecture. I’m not going to get into much detail here.  But, as long as you understand that for the 1st period which is from March 15th to April 11th it ends on April 11th. I mentioned April 12th, but it’s April 11^th—the last day for the 1st 14 consecutive days you are not to have earned any income—through employment income, self-employment, provincial or federal benefits, relating to maternity or paternity leave or parental leave. So if you’re not that for subsequent periods please make sure that after from April 12th onward you need to have 0 income.

If you earn $100 or $200 or whatever, that makes you ineligible. (1) The income has to be 0; (2) you have not quit your job voluntarily; (3) you have not resigned—and we have covered this extensively.  And this is important (4) you have not applied for, nor are you receiving CERB or EI benefits from Service Canada for the same eligibility period. If you applied for EI or if you have applied for CERB through Service Canada, you should not apply here. You will not be eligible.  And that (5) you earned minimum $5000.  Eligibility period is fixed. Over here you choose the eligibility period—it is March 15th 2020 to April 11th 2020 for the 1st one and subsequent periods also show up here. You can only apply for one period.  You cannot apply even if you expect that you are terminated and you will not find a job for the next 4 months you cannot choose another period until you are close to that period. March 15th 2020 to April 11th 2020 is selected.

Now this is the certification part.  You are confirming all of this: that you are eligible and you say yes.  I certify the following – you check here.  Then you click next.  It will bring you to this direct deposit information page. If you want the money to be paid by direct deposit, the information will show up here. Please review it.  Make sure it’s correct.  If that information is not correct, then you have to click here. It will take you out of this particular application and take you to the place where you can update your direct deposit information. You will have to restart your application and come back here and then once you get to this page you say I confirm.  The information is correct.  And then click submit.  Then once it is submitted you will receive this confirmation page.  If you have not received this confirmation page, then the application has not been successfully submitted.

It clearly states that it is submitted for this period.  You will receive money within 3 business days.  You don’t need to do anything else.  No need to confirm further.  No need to contact CRA.  You will get it.  Then they also say that these are taxable benefits. And you will get the information slip for the tax year. For a different period once it’s April11th and you have not found another job or you’re not going to earn any income, then you can apply from April 12th onwards for the next 4 week period so on and so forth until all 16 weeks of income has been exhausted.

Hopefully this gives you some sense of how you will see the process unfold online it is pretty straightforward and I’m sure that you will once you’re able to logon and I know I’ve heard that a lot of people had issues logging in because of so many users trying to access it.  Once you’re logged in, the process is straightforward.  Hopefully this is helpful.

Thank you for watching.

Show Notes:

N/A

Lecture Slides:

Welcome to YouCounsel.

Government has announced additional changes for (C.E.R.B.) Canada Emergency Response Benefits. It has allowed additional people to be eligible.  Still not everybody’s eligible but there are more people who are eligible. Who are those people?  How has the criteria changed?  Today’s update is all about that. What we have done is we have used the slides from our previous lecture and then all the changes that the government has made, we have posted these in our slides in blue color so you can easily see what are the changes that have been made from the last time we provided a lecture on this.

We begin with our disclaimer that this lecture is not legal advice. If you have any specific questions regarding your issues you should contact a lawyer or a paralegal or Canada Revenue Agency with respect to Canada Emergency Response Benefit.

Now most of the criteria is the same—so we will not go into too much detail about that. You need to be at least 15 years old. This is straightforward.   You should be residing in Canada. Not much has changed with respect to residing in Canada, but there are some clarifications that we can post. Temporary foreign workers are eligible, international students are eligible, permanent residents are also eligible—I just wanted to point that out. The only requirement is that you should be residing in Canada and you should have a valid social insurance number and of course you meet the other eligibility requirements.

A number of people have asked this question—that they were traveling overseas and for some reason they are stuck there and they are not able to return to Canada—are they still eligible if they meet all the other conditions?  I quite frankly do not know the answer nor clarity has been given on the Government of Canada website, I would assume that the person is a resident of Canada and they have been temporarily stuck outside of Canada—so they should be eligible.  But you should contact C.R.A. to confirm the answer to this question.

The requirement for $5000 has not changed. To be eligible you should have earned $5000 gross income in the last 12 months or in 2019—that requirement remains the same.  The income should include employment income, self- employment income, if you have earned any maternity or parental benefits—all of those are included.

Previously the requirement was that you must have stopped work due to Covid-19 and that was the only requirement for eligibility and other reasons for stoppage of work would make you ineligible. So that has changed.  But stoppage of work due to Covid-19 is still one of the reasons that will make you eligible.  Some of the conditions were that “you have been let go from your job and previously it is said that your hours have been reduced to 0”—that is no longer the case because the current eligibility allows you to work certain hours based on certain income.  Or if you are in quarantine or sick due to Covid-19; you were away taking care of someone who was sick due to you Covid-19; you are taking care of children who cannot go to daycares or schools because of Covid-19—all of these are stoppage of work reasons due to Covid-19.  But more importantly what I want you to note is that these are only examples, these are not—this is not an exhaustive list that relates to stoppage of work due to Covid-19.  There may be other circumstances in your case in which you are not working somehow related to Covid-19, but the situation is not covered here and so you may still be eligible.

The key thing to note is that you have not voluntarily quit your job.  Because if you have done so, then you will not be eligible for Canada Emergency Response Benefits.

Now, the eligibility change as I noted in blue is that people who are entitled to employment insurance benefits either regular or sickness benefits, they are now eligible for C.E.R.B. What does this mean?  We’ll explain that by way of some example.  Let’s say your stoppage of work is unrelated to Covid-19 but you are eligible to receive regular E.I. benefits, then now you are entitled.  Previously, if your employment contract was ending regardless of Covid-19, you knew that your employment contract is ending on May or June or earlier then that’s the end of contract.  It had nothing to do with Covid-19 and that would make you ineligible for C.E.R.B.  But now you are eligible. Similarly you may have received the termination notice of your employment months and months ago.  You may have received the notice sometime in August of last year that your employment would end in March of 2020 and that was obviously unrelated to Covid-19.  But because of this particular change that the government has introduced now you are entitled to C.E.R.B.

Also, now if you are on E.I. sickness benefits but the reason for sickness is unrelated to Covid-19, then you will still be eligible for C.E.R.B. Previously the reason for the illness had to be related to Covid-19, but now your reason for illness is not related to Covid-19, so you will still be eligible. One more change the government has introduced for eligibility is for people who have exhausted their regular employment insurance benefits during a certain time period which is between December 29th 2019 to October 3rd 2020—these will be people who will also be eligible for C.E.R.B. Let’s explain that by way of example as well. For example, if your employment was ended and you are now looking for work, but you have received employment insurance benefits during regular benefits during this period between December 29th 2019 and October 3rd 2020 then you are now eligible for C.E.R.B. One of the examples could be that your stoppage of work occurred prior to Covid-19. For example, you were terminated from your employment in July of 2019 and you are entitled to regular E.I. benefits and those benefits continued beyond December 29th 2019, then you are still eligible. If those benefits expired prior to December 29th 2019, then you are not eligible or if you were terminated because of unrelated reasons, unrelated to Covid-19 but you received regular E.I. benefits then you will get C.E.R.B.—you’ll be eligible.

This also applies to seasonal workers who work, for example, a lot of construction workers work in the summers and then they receive E.I. benefits for a certain time period.  If those people were receiving benefits between December 29th 2019 and October 3rd 2020 and any time in that time period, then, they will still be eligible for C.E.R.B. even though their end of seasonal work was unrelated to Covid-19.

Similarly, if you had received sickness benefits which were unrelated to Covid-19, but you were entitled to sickness benefits (E.I. sickness benefits) during this time period, then you will be eligible for C.E.R.B. The key thing that struck the common thread in this eligibility is that C.E.R.B. is now being extended to people who have received E.I. regular or sickness benefits between December 29th 2019 and October 3rd 2020.

What are the changes made to the income during the C.E.R.B. period? There are certain changes. It is important to note.  Previously what was stated—that your income in the initial 4-week benefits period and initial 4 weeks benefits period if you recall started from March 15th and ran up to April 11th and then the requirement was for that for 14 consecutive days your income had to be 0 in that time period. That has changed.  Now when you’re making your 1st claim—it is not tied to that particular 1st initial period—for the 4-week benefit period your income for at least 14 consecutive days should not exceed $1000 and that is gross income. It is no longer 0.  As long as you have not made more than $1000 in 14 consecutive days in the 1st claim for your 4-week benefits period, you are now eligible for C.E.R.B.

What does this term “income” include?  This has been explained a bit more in detail.  Let’s go through that. Tips that people earn and declare as income—that is considered income; non-eligible dividends—these are basically monies that you receive from a corporation—small businesses usually; honoraria—this is usually for volunteer workers; royalties is for artists. These are some of the examples of income and, obviously, if you have earned salary or if you earned your self-employment income.  That’s all income.  The same definition is used for the $5000 requirement what is considered income the same definition applies here.

Please note that pension, student loans and bursaries are not considered employment income and they should not be included. What about subsequent periods?  Previously the requirement was that for subsequent periods your income had to be 0—that is no longer the case.  The requirement now, is that your employment income should not exceed $1000 for the entire 4-week benefits period. If it is not exceeding $1000, then you are eligible for C.E.R.B.  This is an incentive for people who are part-time or work less hours and want to continue working certain hours and earn some money.  The important thing is for people who are working part-time and earning less than $1000, the money from C.E.R.B. is not top up.  It’s not that you are going to get additional money to complete the $2000 you will get the whole $2000. If you earn $1000 and you get C.E.R.B. for $2000 that is $3000.  There is some advantage to people who continue to work part-time or for reduced hours.

Income from other benefits: what is stated is that as long as you’re getting, for example, disability payments or other provincial support payments or territorial payments, you need to look at your own provinces’ rules to see whether the rules allow you to get the support payments in addition to C.E.R.B. Each province has to decide that what the government website states is that government has encouraged the provinces to allow people to keep both payments.  My understanding is that so far only British Columbia has confirmed that it will allow temporarily people to keep C.E.R.B. and their disability payments or other social assistance payments but other provinces I’m not sure. Please check with your province to see what the rules are with respect to both payments.

We’re talking about employment insurance or C.E.R.B.—which one you choose or can you choose between the two? If you are already receiving E.I. benefits, whether regular illness, maternity or parental you will continue to receive E.I. and if you were receiving less than $2000 a month the amount will not increase to $2000 it will remain whatever you are receiving. If your E.I. expires before October 3rd 2020, as mentioned earlier, you can apply for C.E.R.B.  Previously the requirement was that your stoppage of work needed to be related to Covid-19 and now that is no longer the case. If your E.I. expires prior to October 3rd 2020, you will be eligible for C.E.R.B. If you have already applied for E.I., you should not apply for C.E.R.B. It will automatically be converted to C.E.R.B. if you applied on March 15th or later.  But if you are eligible for E.I. before March 15th you will receive your regular E.I. benefits and if you are eligible for E.I. on March 15th or later you will receive C.E.R.B. Again, the payment amount for C.E.R.B. is fixed.  It’s $500 per week and that’s what you will receive. But if your E.I. is less and you are already receiving that lesser amount, your E.I. will not increase—you will not get C.E.R.B. for that amount.

Let’s talk about this additional eligibility summary. Let’s summarize it.  Who are people who are now going to get C.E.R.B.?  (a) People who have lost their job before Covid-19 or unrelated to Covid-19 but received regular E.I. between December 29th 2019 and or later, but before October 3rd 2020. These are people who may not have previously been eligible but now are eligible. (b) People who are eligible for E.I. regular benefits. People who are terminated from employment unrelated to Covid-19 for example end of contract, they are now eligible for C.E.R.B. (c) People who are eligible for E.I. sickness, but their sickness is unrelated to Covid-19, they will be eligible for C.E.R.B. now. (d) Seasonal workers, as I indicated, who received regular E.I. until December 29th 2019 or later until October 3rd 2020, they are entitled to—they are now eligible for C.E.R.B.

Please note that there are many people who are still not eligible for C.E.R.B. Some of the people who are still not eligible—(a) people who have lost jobs before the onset of Covid-19 and did not qualify for E.I.  These are people who did not have sufficient insurable hours to qualify for E.I. and they are not eligible. (b) People who were out of employment for a certain time period and they are now looking for work – they are not eligible. So people looking for work but did not receive E.I. between December 29th 2019 and October 3rd 2020, they are still not eligible. (c) Part-time people, reduced hours people who make less than $2000 but earn more than one $1000 a month they will not be eligible for C.E.R.B. and, of course, (d) people who did not earn $5000 in the last 12 months of 2019 – they are still not eligible for C.E.R.B. Finally, (e) people who are receiving E.I. but their E.I. is less than $2000 a month you’re not getting a top up, they’re not getting C.E.R.B.—E.I. is what they are going to get.

Hopefully, this gives you some more clarity about what are the changes that have been made. I understand that a lot of people may still not be eligible and we hope that there may be additional changes that will cover people who are in the need of these payments and who may not be otherwise eligible.

Thank-you for watching.

Show Notes:

N/A

Lecture Slides:

Welcome to YouCounsel.

Many people who do not have a lot of experience in our judicial system (in our court system) have some fundamental misconceptions / misunderstandings, about how judges decide on different cases.  In those misunderstandings what happens is that they end up losing their case, even though they may have good merit—they may have a good case but because of their basic misunderstanding of how judges decide, they at times end up losing their case.  In this lecture I want to explain some of these fundamental misconceptions and then explain how judges make decisions in our court system.

Before we do that I want you to know that this lecture is not legal advice.  If you have any specific questions you should contact a lawyer or a paralegal or the Law Society of Ontario for a referral.

We’ll talk about these fundamental misconceptions and then I will explain to you, how the actual decision-making is done in our courts. Now, with respect to fundamental misconceptions, I am going to give you some of the items that I believe are fundamental.  I have defined it and labeled them in certain ways.  

Number 1: This is called the character reference. Now character reference is where a litigant basically says to the court I’m a good person / I’m an honest person, I’ve never lied, I’m a religious person, I believe in God; whatever, anything that talks to their character.  On the basis of that character, they want the judge to rule in their favor. The argument, essentially, is that I am a good person, I never lie, I am an honest person, therefore you should rule in my favor.  It is very important to understand that character references are 99 percent of the time irrelevant.  The courts do not take that into consideration unless character is one of the issues in that specific case. 

For example, if you are in a breach of contract case – whether you are a good person or not, or whether you are an honest person or not, that people like you is irrelevant.  The question for the court is whether you breached that specific contract in which you are here.  Your character reference and I’ve seen a lot of people even my clients, try to argue this and that, because I’m a good person the judge should believe me, that is not how it works and that is one of the fundamental misconceptions people have about how judges decide.

Number 2: Reference to personal circumstances: For example, if the case against you is that you had a credit card and you took money and paid for certain items and now you are not paying the credit card company which has sued you—making reference to your personal circumstances is not going to help you.  For example, if you come to the court and say I am poor, I don’t have enough money or I have lost my job or I am a single father or single mother or I have little kids and therefore, you should get me off the hook for this payment on this unpaid credit card—that is not going to help you.  Personal circumstances are irrelevant in the decision-making process.  Unless, of course, personal circumstances is one of the key issues in the case, but they are very rare.  A good example that I gave you, was about the unpaid loan kind of stuff, personal circumstances are not what is going to make a judge’s mind about ruling in your favor or against you.

Number 3: People believe that since all judges are honest people, somehow they are going to divine the injustice behind it or behind their situation.  Regardless of the fact that they may not have strong evidence, regardless of the fact that they may not have presented their case in the best light and with the best evidence, somehow the judge is going to see through all of the facts and figure out what is happening behind the scene.  That is not the judge’s role.  That is not what judges do. Judges are not seers.  They are not clairvoyant.  It is not their job to figure out what is happening behind the scene in the absence of evidence. They have to figure out the truth of the matter based on the evidence. They’re not going to discover some reality that exists outside of the evidence that is presented to the judges. 

Number 4: Relating to this point is that somehow people believe that because I’m a good person and because of my personal circumstances and because judges can see through somehow, the judge will become my advocate. The judge is going to come down from the pulpit and help me in succeeding with my case because of all these things, regardless of the fact that my case and also the way it has been presented, i.e., the evidence that has been presented is not helpful to me. That is not what the judges do. The most that I have seen in my experience is that the judge will make a comment to a party saying that: “Mr. So and so / Miss So and so, I suggest that you should seek some professional help, with respect to this case”.

That could mean one of 2 things. One is that your case is terrible. If you continue to proceed in fighting with this case and then proceeding to trial, I won’t have any other chance, but torule against your favor. Why don’t you go talk to a professional and understand how the system works and understand your exposure so that you can prevent that from happening.  Or the judge may believe, that this seems like a better case, there may be some merits to do it. It sounds good but the way you are presenting it, it’s not going to help you. Go find some professional help and try to understand how we decide our cases so that you can present your case properly and that does not mean “go hire a lawyer”, but at least get an understanding, a professional understanding of the system, on how to present your evidence and how to present your case so that you allow the judge to rule in your favor.

 Number 5: Finally, the fifth circumstance is what I call, the David vs. Goliath circumstances. The underlying argument here is that because I am David, therefore, you should rule in my favor. I am David, I am the little guy, I’m fighting against Goliath, this big bad corporation or big bad institution or big bad person or whatever it is, but because I am David, somehow you need to help me out here. That is not what judges do.  Judges do not treat David and Goliath differently. In the eyes of the Judge, David and Goliath have the same values, same respect and same significance. If David has better evidence, David is going to succeed, but if Goliath has better evidence Goliath is going to succeed. It is not a situation where the judges are going to come down from their pulpit and help David because of the smaller size or the smaller resources of David as opposed to Goliath. Ok, so we talked about the fundamental misconceptions.

  Let’s talk about how the actual-decision making works:

1) First point that I want to explain is, that it is important to understand our judicial system is based on adversarial process. The opposite of that is the inquisitorial process in adversarial process, the fundamental concept is that both sides have their own lawyers or own legal professionals or  own case. They are going to present their case to the judge, pursuing their own interest.  When all parties are pursuing their own interests, presenting their best evidence, to get what they want from the court, the truth is going to emerge from that fight between the adversaries. The truth, is going to emerge from that exercise when each party is trying to present their best case, in the best possible manner to the judge.  Once the truth emerges, obviously, the judge  figures that out and then judge rules on that and in the favor of the party that has more merit,.

2) Now, inquisitorial process is different. In the inquisitorial process there is no adversary or adversaries. In that case it’s essentially one person or one body that is tasked to find the truth. Their goal is the search of the truth. For example, in our Canadian system, we have these commissions of inquiry that are made. They are created by the government, oftentimes, e.g.,  Gomery Inquiry or Truth and Reconciliation Commission or the Walkerton Inquiry.  These inquiries follow the inquisitorial process, usually run by a retired judge or someone of that caliber. Their goal is to follow all the evidence. They go where the evidence leads them and then their end game is to find out what happened.Their end game is the truth.  They are not resolving a dispute.  What government does with the final fact finding is is up to the government. The goal of that commission, the goal of that inquiry, is to find the truth.

Adversarial process is not the same. An adversarial process is when 2 parties or 3 parties or even multiple parties are fighting and presenting their case and we’re hoping that the truth will emerge. Now in many cases a truth will emerge in an adversarial process, but in some cases it won’t. So there are advantages and disadvantages of adversarial processes. I’m not going to discuss that today. The point here is that in an adversarial process one of the challenges of the process is that one party may have a lot of resources—financial , they may have competent lawyers, high caliber lawyers, or even a team of lawyers and the other side does not have enough resources. They do not have enough competence or the capability to present their case, in the best light. The challenge in that situation, is that it is possible—not always—but it is possible that the weaker side may not be able to present its case in the best light and therefore  their truth does not emerge the way it ought to have been done, if both parties had  equal fighting capability.  

That is one of the weaknesses of the adversarial process, but that is the process. It is important to understand that, whether you like it or not, that is the process and that is how courts function. In the adversarial system, evidence is the king. I cannot emphasize this enough. Judges make decisions on the evidence that is presented to them. If your uncle who lives in the Bahamas  and you tell the court that my uncle who lives in Bahamas, who is sick and cannot come to the court, but he knows the truth,.he saw the specific instance that you’re presenting to the court and therefore you believe that you should be believed.  The court is not going to rule in your favor because the evidence of that uncle who is sitting in the Bahamas is not before the court. The court is not going to divine some evidence that may have existed. That is not the role of the court. The court is going to make its decision on the basis of evidence.  May the best evidence win.. Therefore, if you are not presenting evidence to the court and you just believe in your heart that unfairness was done to you, that is not sufficient for the court to rule in your favor.

Finally, on this point, I wanted to explain that justice is not the prime goal of the judicial system and this I don’t mean to be crass! I don’t mean to minimize the value of our prejudicial system, but it is a point that it is important for the general public to understand.  This is not a new thing that I’m posting. Legal scholars know about it, academics know about it, judges and lawyers know about it also. Everybody who’s in the judicial system, knows that justice is one of the goals; an important goal, but it’s not the prime goal because the role of the court is resolution of the disputes that is before it.  on the basis of evidence that is presented.  That’s what it is.  In that process sometimes, not a lot of times  but, sometimes the result may not be just.  That is the best system we have and we need to recognize that—that  the role of the court is to resolve disputes on the basis of the evidence that has been presented.

That’s the crux of how the decisions are made. I am really hopeful that if you are a self-represented litigant or you are a person, who has not had a lot of experience with courts, to really understand that this is how the courts function. This is how the judges make their decisions—so that you can present your case on the basis of the evidence you have and present it in a way that you are successful only on the merits of your case.

Thank-you for watching.

Show Notes:

N/A

Lecture Slides:

Welcome to YouCounsel.

The government has posted new information about how to apply for Canada Emergency Response Benefit. I will provide the link for the government website, the C.R.A. website and all of the links that are relevant. If you have already seen the website and got the information, then you don’t need to watch this video. If you have not or you don’t understand some of the things, then this video may be helpful.

This video is not legal advice. If you have any specific questions—in this case you should contact C.R.A.  If you require legal assistance, you should contact a lawyer or a paralegal or the Law Society of Ontario for a referral.

Today will talk about some of the steps that you should take before April 6th. These are important. Then we’ll talk about steps that you will take on April 6th and onward.  We will indicate to you that you will have to reapply for these benefits.

First of all, you will need to determine how are you going to apply for C.E.R.B.? Are you going to apply online or you’re going to apply by phone? If you apply online, the number one thing that you have to do is make sure that you have a C.R.A. My Account. If you already have one, that’s great. If you don’t have one, please create it now. You do not need to wait till April 6th to create an account. I think you’ll be better off creating one now, so that you are ready to file your application as soon as April 6th comes on. I have provided the link below that will show you how you go about creating a C.R.A. account.

This is the website that the Canadian government has posted.  I will provide the link. This is the website, which is on the C.R.A. page.  It talks about how you go about applying for C.E.R.B.  I’ll provide some of the information from here.  Finally, this is the website (this is the link) where if you don’t have an account—see My Account at C.R.A. How do you go about creating it? There are a few options here.  This is the one—where if you just want to create an account, if you don’t have one you simply click on it C.R.A. register and it will ask you for some information for example, your social insurance number and whatnot and you will be able to open an account. If you have created a new account or if you have an old account please make sure that your contact information—your address/ postal code is accurate because if you are receiving payment through cheque by mail, then this needs to be correct information. If you are receiving payment by direct deposit, you need to make sure that your banking information is correct.

Number 2, you need to determine and I think it’s a good idea for you to determine beforehand, what is the time period for which you are applying for benefits. Now the benefits will be paid for every 4 weeks—starting from March 15th 2020. The first 4-weeks period is March 15th 2020 to April 12th 2020. You need to determine beforehand whether you are expecting to be off from March 15th to April 12 2020—the entire time period and you will not earn any income.  If that is the case, then that will be the time period for which you will be applying for.

If it is a lesser time period, remember that for the first 4-weeks period you need to have at least 14 consecutive days for which you did not get any income and that makes you eligible. If it is less than this 4-weeks period, then any 14 days, at least 14 days between March 15th to April 12th 2020 will make you eligible. Make sure that you figure those out.

Now there was somebody who asked me this question, so I want to clarify it right here. If you had worked for example until March 14th, but the payment for that work you will receive towards the end of March or maybe early April, the question was: I am receiving payment during this time period, am I still eligible? Yes, you are.  If you are getting payment for the work that you had already done prior to March 15^th—no matter when you get the payment—you are still eligible. Because you are not getting paid for the time period after March 15th. It’s important to know that it doesn’t matter when you’re getting paid in your salary, it is for what time period you’re getting paid.

Number 3 you should choose that day for your application based on the month of your birth. Now C.R.A. has provided this information.  If you’re born in January/February/ March then Mondays are the days that you should apply starting April 6th. If you are born in April/ May/June, then Tuesday starting April 7th. For July/August/ September, Wednesday starting April 8th. For October/November/ December, Thursdays.  You can apply on Friday, Saturday or Sunday regardless of the month of your birth. Also I think it will be a good idea for you to choose the time of your application. Please note that the website for C.R.A. will be down between 3 am and 6 am for each day for maintenance, but otherwise it is open 21 hours a day, 7 days a week. It is a good idea for you to figure out what would be an appropriate time when you should log on to your, My C.R.A. Account website and fill out your application.

If you’re applying by phone; what are some of the things that you should do before April 6th. Number one, obviously you should note down the phone number that you’re going to call.  It is 1-800-959-2019.  It is on the website—the link that I provided. Make sure that your social insurance number is readily available.  Make sure that you have your postal code for your residence ready and written and you need to make sure that C.R.A. has accurate address information and banking information for you—because if you are getting payment made by direct deposit then your banking information needs to be up-to-date.  If you’re getting a cheque, then your address has to be up-to-date.

What are the steps you take when April 6th comes or onwards?  If you’re using online system, then you should log into C.R.A. My Account.  Then you go to this Covid-19 Canada Emergency Response Benefit, it is in the alert banner at the top of the page. Look for it, go click on it, select the period for which you are applying, declare that you’re qualified for the benefits or notice that the only thing government is requiring at this time is yourself declaration. It’s based on an honor system that you qualify for these benefits.

Now the government may ask for additional information later.  You may have to provide documentation.  But for now you just need to declare it and you need to confirm that C.R.A. has the right payment information for you—whether it’s direct deposit or by cheque.

Finally, once you have submitted your application you will receive payment within 3 days if you have selected direct deposit / within 10 days if you have selected by cheque. Please make sure that you reapply every 4 weeks, if you are still eligible for C.E.R.B. You will only get one payment every 4 weeks and there are total 4 payments that you will receive. Please note that even if you know that you will not be getting any income for the next 4 months or 16 weeks, you will not be able to get all the payments at one time or just applying once. You will have to log in every 4 weeks and make sure you apply. It is important because the process is that those who apply will get the benefits.

Please check the websites that I have provided links for.  If you have further questions post it in the comments and we’ll try to answer those questions.  The application process is straightforward. In other lectures we will talk about eligibility and some of the questions people have raised and I know that from the information the government has now provided there are a lot of questions that are being answered, so I will post separate lectures for that.

Thank you for watching.

Show Notes:

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Lecture Slides:

Welcome to YouCounsel.

You may have noticed that Amazon has been in the news lately.  In the United States some of its workers have walked out of their warehouses because they were concerned that there weren’t enough safety measures to protect them from the transmission of Covid-19. We have already posted a lecture on this topic but, because of this recent instance that occurred at Amazon, I thought it was appropriate to revisit this topic again—in light of what is going on in the U.S. with Amazon stores and then talk about the right to refuse work, in general, in Canada.

Please know that this lecture is not legal advice so if you have any specific questions you should contact a lawyer or a paralegal and in this case the Ministry of Labor of your province.

We will talk about Amazon.  We will talk about employer’s safety obligations towards employees in general. Can employees refuse work due to their concerns that they may contract Covid-19 virus? And then what are some of the procedures for refusing to work in Ontario?

This is an article from The Guardian.  It had indicated that this person, Chris Smalls, an assistant manager at one of the warehouses in Staten Island at Amazon had arranged to walk out because of the concerns that there were a few employees who had contracted coronavirus and other employees he believes were not protected. He had arranged to walk out and then he was terminated from his employment.  Amazon states that Mr. Smalls was terminated because he was not following some of the safety policies.  He had come in contact, close contact with a diagnosed associate.  He was asked to remain home with pay for 14 days—which he did not. Mr. Small claims otherwise.  He believes that he was terminated because he had arranged to walk out due to concerns over Covid-19.

Now, I understand, from the news that there are similar walk outs being arranged in Michigan and in Chicago in Amazon warehouses because of the concerns over there. We also know from this article in Reuters that Amazon workers in one facility had gone on strike.  You would know in Italy, it states that parcel and mail delivery is considered essential and has not been halted. But the requirement is that people should stay—employees should stay one meter safety distance and workers should wear face masks and gloves. Now several employees had claimed that the face masks were not—they were using the same face masks for a number of days and were not getting a new face mask each day. These are some of the concerns that have been raised, with regards to Amazon’s operations and as you know, you and I, all of us we have significant deliveries that we receive from Amazon even now it during this time, the operations are ongoing. If Amazon employees are exposed to corona virus, then invariably a lot of consumers who are receiving merchandise from Amazon are potentially at risk too.

The employers obligation with respect to providing a safe work environment in Canada, come from provincial health and safety legislation.  In the case of federal government, federal employees, federal health and safety legislation. Each province has its own health and safety legislation that essentially requires that it is an employer’s job to ensure that its employees have a safe working environment.  It applies to Amazon in Canada, it applies to Wal-Mart, it applies to all bigger employers, it applies to your corner grocery store, your law firms, your factories—every single employer is bound by the applicable legislation for health and safety.

What should an employer do?  Like Amazon?  First of all they need to make sure that they have appropriate Covid-19 protection policies in place and those policies need to be specific to the workplace. For example the policies that would apply to Amazon would be different than a policy that would apply in an office environment and that would be different than the policy that would apply in a retail environment and will be different from a policy that will apply in a production environment  The concern—the underlying concern is that you want to protect your workers your employees from the spread of corona virus, from Covid- 19. But how in your specific environment you will ensure that protection that needs to be considered and made part of a specific policy. Then those policies also should include, what kind of sanitation standards are being followed, so that employees understand what kind of sanitation standards are being used in your employment workplace. Employers should communicate those policies to employees because then employees need to understand what kind of measures their employers are taking to protect them and if they have any concerns then they could raise those concerns with those employers.

Now in fairness to employers, I was looking at what kind of guidelines the Ministry of Labor, at least in Ontario, may have provided for employers to enact those policies or provide guidelines.  Unfortunately, I did not find much information. I googled Covid-19 and Ministry of Labor. I found this page which is Ministry of Labor’s page in Ontario.  It has only one Covid-19 notice which is relating to construction site health and safety during Covi-19.  When you look at this particular pamphlet—this particular information—it again has very generic information about how do you protect yourself on a construction site from Covid-19.  It’s by washing your hands, and sneezing and avoiding high touch area—where possible and things like that. But there isn’t much of a guideline provided by the Ministry of Labor with respect to different kinds of workplaces. Ministry of Labor does not only monitor construction sites but it monitors every single employer. Ideally, there should have been information about health and safety precautions in retail sites and health and safety precautions in industrial sites and what not but unfortunately, I have not found much information.

The other link re corona virus takes you to this link which is information from the Ministry of Health.  Again it’s very generic information which talks about best practices—basically including what are the everyday actions that you need to do and then social distancing of 2 meters. In that situation, obviously, the employers have to do their own work to figure out what may work based upon at least the guidelines (the generic guidelines) that are available—how different kind of scenarios may play out in their workplace and how they’ll go about protecting their employees.

Can employees refuse work if they are concerned? Absolutely yes.  If you, as an employee, believe that you may contract Covid-19 because of improper policies or insufficient policies to protect you in the workplace, then the answer is yes. But your right to refuse work is subject to the occupational safety legislation. It’s not that you can just simply say no, I’m concerned.  You need to look at the specific legislation and see what that legislation say’s about right to refuse work. If you are in a province other than Ontario then you need to look at legislation for your own province and then follow the procedure. With respect to the procedure for refusal to work in Ontario, as I said, I have a separate lecture which I posted a few days ago, that has a bit more detailed information.  Please check that out.

Generally speaking, if you’re concerned you raise the concern with the employer.  The employer is required to investigate and resolve your concerns about the workplace safety. If you, during the time that the employer is investigating and resolving the issue, if you are expected or you’re required to stay home, then the employer is bound to give you your regular wages for that time. If you are not satisfied with the employer’s resolution then you contact the Ministry of Labor. The Ministry of Labor will send an inspector to check the workplace environment and then decide whether the employer is making sufficient or taking sufficient measures or not.

As you can imagine if the number of cases for Covid-19 grows in our country, then obviously, we will have more concerns about right to refuse work in our work place. I noticed that in downtown Toronto a lot of condo development is still ongoing—the buildings are still being built.  I don’t understand how condominium development is considered essential services, but this is something that I noticed personally. I’ve also been to a few grocery stores.  While the grocery stores have enacted certain policies about allowing a certain number of customers to go inside the store, I did not see a lot of measures to protect their employees with respect to providing them masks or gloves or keeping them at all times at a distance of more than 2 meters from its customers.

These are the issues that, unfortunately, will become subject of much debate in the coming days. I suspect we will be visiting this topic again.  Please stay safe.

Thank you for watching.