The Skeena
More than one-quarter of British Columbians say that if the Canadian Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) were ended they wouldn’t be able to afford to stay in their homes. That’s the worrying reality suggested by a new national poll on the federal government’s response to coronavirus.
“One in five (21%) Canadians indicate that if they don’t continue receiving COVID-19 related money – like CERB– from the government, they literally could lose the roof over their head,” polling from Maru/Blue explains. “This is most likely to be felt by those residing in British Columbia (27%).”
Not surprisingly, the intensity of this fear depends a lot on people’s age. Across Canada, 28 percent of 18 to 34-year-olds said their housing depends on CERB, while only 13 percent of people above age 55 felt the same way.
At the same time, many people in the province (72 percent) are deeply concerned about the deficit created by all this federal spending and what it could mean for young people. Overall, about 51 percent of British Columbians say we should decrease CERB spending while the rest believe it must be maintained at current levels.
“There’s a lot of enthusiasm for opening the economy, getting people back to work, having people with full-time pay, and have less debt for the country, but the circumstances are looking for adequate safeguards and transitions,” the executive vice-president at Maru/Blue John Wright told the National Post.
“I don’t think we’ve had that discussion about what you do with people, because if you remove a net and all there is is a floor, there’s going to be a lot of broken bones,” he said.
