Student job seekers worry, many don't qualify for Canada emergency response benefit

Ottawa, Apr 7 (Canadian-Media): Disappearance of jobs or internships due to the worsening economic downtown in Canada by COVID pandemic outbreak, had caused increased anxiety among post-secondary students regarding paying for school next year, media reports said. 

Canadian Alliance of Student Associations Image credit: Facebook page

The students' concern that they can't rely on federal government help as the Canada emergency response benefit (CERB) applies to people who lost their income due to the pandemic for at least 14 consecutive days in the last month. 

Students who don't have a minimum annual income of $5,000, or who have not worked consistently throughout the academic year, won't qualify for funding. 

Most post-secondary students don’t qualify for the #CERB, leaving students in an even more precarious position than they are already in.

Students need guaranteed access to CERB during #COVID19!

Visit https://t.co/d0AF1tJIOs to tell your MP to include students in the CERB. https://t.co/ylOEFXKMlR

— LU Student Union (@lusu_tbay) April 7, 2020

​Students have started rallying and signing petitions for being considered for federal government help.

Too many students are being left behind by the CERB. The #NDP are pressing for #UBIStimulus so we aren’t leaving people behind. If you support this idea to help Canadian students, call or write your MP, & sign this petition.#dontforgetstudents https://t.co/eqzq7E4ope pic.twitter.com/E9RpAKrY0x

— Heather McPherson (@HMcPhersonMP) April 6, 2020

me Minister Justin Trudeau acknowledged these concerns yesterday and said his government is working to fill the gap and looking for ways to absorb students and Canadians without any work to help fill some of the crucial roles in agricultural producers, our fisheries, and our agricultural transformers.

About 60,000 temporary foreign workers who come to work in the agricultural sector, planting, producing and harvesting and had been exempted from travel ban must quarantine for two weeks upon arrival, Trudeau said Apr 5.

There also has been delays in the process to grant the necessary work visas due to the pandemic.

All these factors had led to the back log in the fields of agriculture, planting producing and harvesting and has effected the food sector of the country, which Trudeau's government is considering to improve by hiring students who do not qualify for CERB.