On August 20, 2020, the Government of Canada announced further
actions to help support workers through the next phase of the
COVID-19 pandemic. Those actions include an extension of the Canada
Emergency Response Benefit (CERB), temporary changes to the
Employment Insurance (EI) program, and three new income support
programs.
Four-Week Extension of CERB
In an effort to bridge the gap as workers transition to a more
flexible and generous EI program or to another income support
program (as described in more detail below), the federal government
has extended the CERB eligibility period by four weeks, to a
maximum of 28 weeks between March 15, 2020 and October 3, 2020.
This means that eligible Canadians who expected to exhaust their
CERB benefits at the end of August will now be able to access one
additional month of support. As a reminder, the CERB provides
benefits of $500 per week (or $2,000 in each four-week eligibility
period) to workers who have lost their jobs or
