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OTTAWA — The federal Liberal authorities is weighing whether or not to bar individuals who have travelled abroad from a brand new sick-leave profit that pays as much as $1,000 to Canadians who need to quarantine resulting from COVID-19.
The Canada Recovery Sickness Benefit was launched within the fall to assist Canadians who’re unable to work as a result of they need to quarantine through the pandemic. It pays $500 per week to a most of two weeks.
But Employment Minister Carla Qualtrough says the federal government is “actively looking at all options” within the face of questions over whether or not Canadians who’ve travelled overseas ought to be allowed to gather the cash.
The profit is designed “to provide workers with a paid sick-leave option where one might not be available through their employer, so that workers did not have to choose between going to work and putting food on the table,” she mentioned in an announcement.
“The Canada Recovery Sickness Benefit was never intended to incentivize or encourage Canadians to not follow public health or international travel guidelines. … We are actively looking at all available options to address this issue.”
Questions in regards to the sick-leave profit have been first raised over the weekend by Bloc Quebecois Leader Yves-Francois Blanchet, who mentioned it was “absurd in most cases” that anybody capable of go away the nation would wish authorities assist to quarantine.
“If someone is travelling because it is essential for their work, you might think they won’t lose income,” he added in an announcement in French. “And if someone is traveling for pleasure, they are already being advised not to travel.”
Watch: Meet the airport canines sniffing for coronavirus. Story continues under.
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh, whose celebration pushed the Liberals to create the profit, welcomed the federal government’s overview, saying Canadians have been “rightly upset those who can afford to go on a vacation could get $1,000 to stay home when they come back.”
Yet he additionally warned Canadians would proceed to go away the nation so long as non-essential journey was allowed.
“We need to make sure they have all the tools to stay home when they come back,” he mentioned. “We look forward to (the government) coming back to parliamentarians with a solution that doesn’t create a bigger health risk.”
The rising debate over what to do with the sick-leave advantages comes as Canadians have been buffeted over the previous week with revelations that some politicians have ignored their very own authorities’s recommendation and engaged in non-essential journey overseas.
A slew of politicians caught travelling
Those embrace Rod Phillips, who resigned as Ontario’s finance minister after a vacation journey to the Caribbean exploded in controversy, in addition to plenty of Alberta MLAs who Premier Jason Kenney has declined to punish.
The federal NDP additionally stripped Manitoba MP Niki Ashton of her duties because the celebration’s transport critic and deputy critic for girls and gender equality after she travelled to Greece this month. Ashton says she left to be along with her ailing grandmother.
Those journeys have come at the same time as thousands and thousands of Canadians face government-imposed lockdowns throughout the nation aimed toward curbing the second wave of COVID-19 infections, which included 1000’s of newly reported instances on Sunday.
That consists of almost 3,000 new optimistic exams in Ontario over the previous 24 hours and greater than 7,600 new instances in Quebec since Thursday, with a whole lot of individuals hospitalized in each provinces.
In a uncommon bit of excellent information, nevertheless, Nunavut reported that the territory has no recognized instances as all 265 residents who’ve beforehand examined optimistic are actually recovered. The territory has logged one virus-related demise over the course of the pandemic.
This report by The Canadian Press was first revealed Jan. 3, 2021.
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