The Canadian Emergency Student Benefit (CESB) is finally here — almost two months after Canada began social distancing. It has been a long and hard-fought road to receive financial aid for students.
It shouldn’t have been.
The Liberals have traditionally claimed to be a party that cares about student issues. COVID-19 provided them with a perfect opportunity to demonstrate this commitment.
Hundreds of thousands of students lost their summer employment overnight as the country shuttered its doors in response to the pandemic. Financial support for students became a critical issue, as summer income is essential for students to finance their education and provide for themselves. This was the time for decisive action and the government did act decisively — just not for students.
On May 18, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced $82 billion in financial aid for Canadian workers and businesses, by May 24 the Canadian Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) was passed into law, and by the beginning of April, CERB was available with back pay dating to March 15. While CERB did help some students, its terms of qualifications excluded many from aid.
Not including students in CERB from the start was an oversight, but was also understandable at the time. Full-time students would not finish their studies until the end of April, and would not have started working until May. Aid was not needed immediately for students, but it was for workers who had just lost their jobs.
However, students knew that come May they would find themselves in the same boat as those covered by CERB. COVID-19 erased their job opportunities and the accompanying income. Students’ problem was not so different from that of CERB recipients, and therefore, the solution should have been the same: basic income support. The government simply had to come out and say, ‘We’re working on a financial aid package for students that will be available at the end of April or early May,’ and the concerns of many students would have been alleviated.
Instead, the government provided nothing for weeks. When pressed by student activists and groups as to why students were not included in the support package and if the government had plans to extend it to them, no definitive answers were given. Only on April 8 did the government finally announce some sort of aid for students — but it was not a basic income. It was an expansion of the summer jobs program, along with a wage subsidy program, and a moratorium on student loans.
Statistics Canada estimated about 1.2 million students worked last summer, which was not expected to significantly decrease this year. The summer jobs program couldn’t have employed even a significant minority of students as it only created an estimated 70,000 new jobs. Hundreds of thousands of students were still going to be left out in the cold financially. It took another two weeks before CESB was announced.
If the summer job solution had been proposed alongside a basic income, it would have been welcomed. The government took similar steps with CERB when they announced a wage subsidy program to encourage businesses to keep employees. But without a basic income for those left unemployed, the wage subsidy program alone was inadequate. What were unemployed students left to do? They were still without an income to provide for themselves and their families.
Even when CESB was finally announced, it was $750 less per month than CERB. Students with dependents and those living with disabilities would get more, but would still be $250 per month short of CERB. Student aid recipients are also required “to be actively looking for work,” meaning putting out applications, contacting potential employers, and seeking out job opportunities — a gruelling task considering the current state of the job market. It took another week of activism before the government conceded and raised the benefit for those with dependents up to $2,000 on April 29, but for the rest, the program remains the same.
This whole process has left a bad taste in the mouths of many students, including mine. The months-long fight was unnecessary and disappointing. We shouldn’t have had to fight for the support that we needed, especially with a government that claims to be concerned with our needs. The Liberals can claim that they planned to implement this from the beginning, but the month of inaction, minimal communication, and seemingly half-hearted solutions suggest otherwise.
CESB doesn’t feel like a response to student needs. It feels like a response to the pressure placed on the government by student activists. I truly believe that without student activism, we may never have gotten the support that we needed.
Featured graphic by Jillian Piper.
