Show Notes:

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Lecture Slides:

Welcome to YouCounsel.

This video basically restates the information that is already available on the Government of Canada website in the form of a press release. I have provided a link to that website below – in the description of this lecture. If you have already seen that press release and understand what it states, then you don’t need to watch this video.  But, if you haven’t reviewed that information, then you are welcome to obtain that information from here.

In my previous lecture about employment insurance benefits with respect to Corona virus, we had covered two different kinds of benefits: Emergency Care benefits and Support benefits. What government has now done is simplified the process and sort of merged the two processes—the two benefits into one—which is now called emergency response benefits.  This lecture explains what those benefits are and who are the people who will be qualified for those benefits.

Again this lecture is not legal advice.  If you have any specific questions, you should contact a lawyer or a paralegal or in this case contact Service Canada for their information.

We will talk about 3 things.  I’ll explain how much benefits you will be entitled to under Canada Emergency Response Benefits. Who are the people who will be eligible?  What happens to people who have either applied for employment insurance benefits or are receiving employment insurance benefits?  

The amount of money you will receive under this plan is $2000 per month and this is taxable income. It will be paid every 4 weeks and it is only for up to 4 months—between March 15th 2020 to October 3rd 2020. Once you apply, the government believes that they will be able to make payment within 10 days of your application.  The portal for applying for this benefit will be available in early April. I believe you will be able to apply online and you will also be able to apply for it through a phone number—which the Government of Canada will provide.

The most important thing you want to note is that, this part of benefit is available to people who are eligible to receive employment insurance benefits and people who do not qualify for employment insurance benefits. You could be a self-employed person, not entitled to receive employment insurance benefits and yet you will be able to access these benefits and, of course, the people who are employees and remit employment insurance benefits, they will be entitled to it too.

This is the important part. It’s available to all.  What are the circumstances in which you will get these benefits? If you have lost your job due to Covid-19; if you are still employed, but not receiving any income, due to Covid-19; if you are sick, you are quarantined; if you are taking care of someone who is sick due to Covid-19; or if you are a working parent, who must stay at home without pay, please note that it is without pay, you are staying home to take care of your children who are either sick or who are at home because their school is closed or daycare is closed.

What happens to people who have applied for EI or are receiving EI? If you are already receiving regular / sickness benefits under the Employment Insurance Act, then you don’t need to reapply. If your regular benefits under Employment Insurance Act end before October 3rd 2020, and, you are still not able to return to work, then you will be able to apply for CERB. If you have already applied for employment insurance, but your application is not yet processed you don’t need to reapply you will get processed for these benefits.  Then employees who are entitled to receive regular sickness benefits or regular benefits or sickness benefits – they will be able to access normal benefits, if they are still unemployed after 16 weeks. This is for people who are eligible for regular benefits and once the 16 weeks has expired and they are still unemployed, they can then access employment insurance benefits.

As stated earlier, I’ll provide the link to the Government of Canada website. Please check that website frequently as the information may change. It has changed from the last few days that I have reviewed the website and if you have any questions please contact Service Canada.

Thank-you for watching.

Show Notes:

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Lecture Slides:

Welcome to YouCounsel.

This is an updated lecture on Canada Emergency Business Account for businesses and nonprofit organizations. The government has announced some changes to the eligibility criteria and there is some more information about the process of application that we would like you guys to know about. Please know that the changes that we have made from our previous lecture, they are all noted in blue, so you will be able to easily follow what changes we have made.

We begin with our usual disclaimer that this lecture is not legal advice. If you have any specific questions you should contact your financial institution, Export Development of Canada, contact a lawyer or a paralegal or the law society of Ontario for a referral.

The topics we will cover will be the purpose of this loan; we will talk about the eligibility; we will talk about some of its features and how to apply.

With respect to purpose: not much has changed.  It is a $40,000 loan for small to medium sized businesses or nonprofit organizations.  The loan is to be used for operational expenses that cannot be deferred. This is important.  These expenses could be rent, payroll, supplier bills, insurance, etc. Please note that you cannot use these funds for payment of your existing loans or indebtedness or refinancing or payment of dividends or distribution and increase to management compensations. These are some of the things that you cannot use the funds for.  Please make sure that the funds are used for the purpose that they are provided.

Now in order to get this loan the businesses must be eligible. What is the eligibility criteria and how it has changed? Let’s look into that. Previously you need to have paid anywhere from $50,000 to $1,000,000 in salaries to your employees in 2019. That has been reduced from $50,000 dollars to $20,000 and an increase on the other side up to $1,500,000. If you have paid at least $20,000 in salaries to your employees in 2019, you will be eligible. The business has to be in operation as of March 1st 2020. It must have a federal tax registration number and it must have an active business checking / operating account.

Now it is important to note, that this account has to be in the business’s name. For a lot of sole proprietors who do not have an account in the business name and they have been operating their business through their personal account—which is allowed—unfortunately they are not eligible. If you are in that situation you should contact your financial institution to see if there is a way to get over that obstacle. The account has to be open prior to March 1st 2020. You cannot open a new account in your business name to overcome this hurdle.  The account has to be in operation prior to March 1st 2020. The account cannot be in arrears on “existing borrowing” by 90 days or more. For eligibility you should not have used this program previously and you cannot apply again from a different financial institution. You also need to show or confirm the intention to continue your operations or if your operations are closed, to show the intention to resume operations.  You also need to agree that you will respond to government surveys or surveys conducted by agencies related to the government.

Let’s talk about some organizations that will be ineligible. These will be any organizations that are government bodies or organizations owned by government bodies.  Also a Union, charitable, religious or paternal organizations are not eligible or any entities owned by them are not eligible and the only exception is for organizations that are registered T2 or T3010.  These are for nonprofit or charity organizations that generate a portion of their revenue from the sale of goods or services. Any organization owned by individuals holding political office is ineligible and finally the organization must not promote violence, incite hatred or discriminate on the basis of sex, gender, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, religion, culture, region, education, age or mental or physical disability.

Let’s talk about some of the features of this loan—which we have previously explained. Number one: duration. It will be a revolving line of credit until December 31st 2020.  After that it will become a non-revolving loan.  A 5-year term which will mature on December 31st 2025. Respecting interest—there is no interest until January 1st 2023.  After that it will become 5 percent interest per annum which will be payable monthly. There is a 25 percent loan forgiveness opportunity here. If you have a balance as of January 1st 2021 and you pay 75 percent of that balance by December 31st 2022, then the remaining 25 percent is forgiven.

An example is if you have $40,000 balance as of January 1st 2021 and you pay $30,000 by December 31st 2022 – then $10,000 will be forgiven. In order to apply, you should contact your financial institution.  They all have online application processes available.  So please follow those processes and apply for these loans.

Hopefully, if you were not eligible previously, because of the new changes, your business is now eligible and you can benefit from this loan.

Thank-you for watching.

Show Notes:

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Lecture Slides:

Welcome to YouCounsel.

Today we will talk about Canada Emergency Business Account (CEBA). This is a program launched by the Canadian government to assist small businesses, medium sized businesses, nonprofit organizations and charities, in this difficult time due to Covid-19. We will explain the features of this program, the eligibility criteria, etc.

We begin with our usual disclaimer that this lecture is not legal advice.  If you have any specific questions regarding your issues, you should contact a lawyer or a paralegal or the Law Society of Ontario for a referral or your accountant or your financial institution.

We will explain the purpose of CEBA. We will explain the eligibility criteria and we will talk about some of the features. Then we will explain how you go about applying for this loan.

Essentially, if the loan is for $40,000 dollars and it is meant for small to medium sized businesses or nonprofit organizations or charities.  The purpose of the loan is to assist these organizations in their operational expenses that cannot be deferred. What are some of those expenses?  It could be your rent, could be your payroll, your supplier bills, insurance, property tax, etc. To qualify for this loan the business must be eligible.

Let’s talk about the eligibility criteria. It is pretty straight forward.  The business must have paid $50,000 to $1,000,000 in salaries to its employees in 2019. Non-profit organizations must have filed a T2 return, which is their annual return for the 2019 tax year.  Similarly, charities must have filed a T3010 return for the 2019 tax year.

Let’s talk about some of the features of this loan.  First of all the duration of this loan: until December 31st 2020 this $40,000 is considered a revolving line of credit. You can take the money out, put it back in.  After December 31st 2020, the outstanding balance converts to a non-revolving loan for a 5 year term and that term matures on December 31st 2025—that means that you need to pay back the loan by December 31st 2025.

Let’s talk about interest. What is the amount of interest on this loan? There is no interest until January 1st 2023. Starting January 1st 2023 you will accumulate 5 percent interest per annum, which is payable monthly.  25 percent of the loan can be forgiven.  How does that happen? Whatever your balance is as of January 1st 2021, whatever the balance amount is, if you pay 75 percent of that amount on or before December 31st 2022, the remaining 25 percent is forgiven. Let’s take an example.  Let’s say the balance as of January 1st 2021 was the entire amount $40,000 and you paid $30,000 on or before December 31st 2022, then the amount of loan that is forgiven is $10,000.

How do you apply for this loan?  It is pretty straight forward. You contact your financial institution, whether it’s RBC, Bank of Montreal, Bank of Nova Scotia, whatever the bank is, contact them, they have online applications available. You check the requirements and fill out the application and send it to your bank.  Then the bank will decide whether you are eligible for the loan and whether the loan is approved or not. If you’re a smaller medium sized business or a nonprofit organization, hopefully you will be able to take advantage of this loan in this difficult time.

Thank you for watching.

Show Notes:

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Lecture Slides:

Welcome to YouCounsel.

Government has announced additional changes for CERB, Canada Emergency Response Benefits. It has allowed additional people to be eligible.  Still not everybody’s eligible. But there are more people who are eligible.  Who are those people? How has the criteria changed?  This update is all about that. What we have done is, we have used the slides from our previous lecture and then all the changes that the government has made we have posted these in our slides in blue color so you can easily see what are the changes that have been made from the last time we provided a lecture on this.

We begin with our disclaimer that this lecture is not legal advice, if you have any specific questions regarding your issues you should contact a lawyer or a paralegal or Canada Revenue Agency with respect to Canada Emergency Response Benefit.

Now most of the criteria is the same. We will not go into too much detail about that. You need to be at least 15 years old, this is straightforward. You should be residing in Canada. Not much has changed with respect to residing in Canada, but there are some clarifications that we can post.  Temporary foreign workers are eligible, international students are eligible, permanent residents are also eligible.  I just wanted to point that out. The only requirement is that you should be residing in Canada and you should have a valid social insurance number and of course you meet the other eligibility requirements.

Now a number of people have asked this question that they were traveling overseas and for some reason they are stuck there and they are not able to return to Canada.  Are they still eligible, if they meet all the other conditions? I quite frankly do not know the answer.  No clarity has been given on the Government of Canada website. I would assume that the person is a resident of Canada and they have been temporarily stuck outside of Canada so they should be eligible, but you should contact CRA to confirm the answer to this question.

The requirement for $5000 has not changed.  To be eligible you should have earned $5000 gross income in the last 12 months or in 2019.  That requirement remains the same and the income should include employment income, self- employment income, if you have earned any maternity or parental benefits, all of those are included.

Previously the requirement was that you must have stopped work due to Covid-19 and that was the only requirement for eligibility and other reasons for stoppage of work would make you ineligible. That has changed.  But stoppage of work is still stoppage of work—due to Covid-19—is still one of the reasons that will make you eligible.  Some of the conditions were you have been let go from your job.  Previously it said that your hours have been reduced to 0—that is no longer the case because the current eligibility allows you to work certain hours based on certain income.  Or if you are in quarantine or sick due to Covid-19, you were away taking care of someone who was sick due to Covid-19, you are taking care of children who cannot go to daycares or schools because of Covid-19—all of these are stoppage of work and are reasons due to Covid-19.  But more importantly what I want you to note is that these are only examples. 

This is not an exhaustive list that relates to stoppage of work due to Covid-19.  There may be other circumstances in your case in which you are not working, somehow related to Covid-19, but the exact situation is not covered here and so you may still be eligible. The key thing to note is that you have not voluntarily quit your job.  Because, if you have done so then you will not be eligible for Canada Emergency Response Benefits.

The eligibility change as I noted in blue, is that people who are entitled to employment insurance benefits either regular or sickness benefits, they are now eligible for CERB. What does this mean? We’ll explain that by way of some example. Let’s say your stoppage of work is unrelated to Covid-19, but you are eligible to receive regular E.I. benefits.  Then, now you are entitled. Previously if your employment contract was ending, regardless of Covid-19, you knew that your employment contract is ending on May or June or earlier, then that’s the end of contract.  It had nothing to do with Covid-19.  That would make you ineligible for CERB.  But now you are eligible. Similarly, you may have received the termination notice of your employment months and months ago.  You may have received the notice sometime in August of last year that your employment would end in March of 2020 and that was obviously unrelated to Covid-19.  But because of this particular change, that government has introduced, now you are entitled to CERB.

Also, now if you are on sickness, E.I. sickness benefits, but the reason for sickness is unrelated to Covid-19, then you will still be eligible for CERB. Previously the reason for the illness had to be related to Covid-19, but now your reason for illness is not related to Covid-19.  You will still be eligible.

One more change the government has introduced for eligibility is for people who have exhausted their regular employment insurance benefits during a certain time period which is between December 29^th, 2019 to October 3^rd, 2020. These will be people who will also be eligible for CERB. Let’s explain that by way of an example as well. For example, if your employment was ended and you are now looking for work but you have received employment insurance benefits, regular benefits during this period between December 29th 2019 and October 3rd 2020, then you are now eligible for CERB. One of the examples could be that your stoppage of work occurred prior to Covid-19.  For example, you were terminated from your employment in July 2019 and you are entitled to regular E.I. benefits and those benefits continued beyond December 29th 2019, then you are still eligible. If those benefits expired prior to December 29th 2019, then you are not eligible.  Or if you were terminated because of unrelated reasons, unrelated to Covid-19, but you received regular E.I. benefits then you will get CERB.  You’ll be eligible.

This also applies to seasonal workers.  For example, a lot of construction workers work in the summers and then they receive E.I. benefits for a certain time period. If those people were receiving benefits between December 29th 2019 and October 3rd 2020 – any time in that time period, then they will still be eligible for CERB even though their end of seasonal work was unrelated to Covid-19.

Similarly, if you had received sickness benefits which were unrelated to Covid-19, but you were entitled to sickness benefits, E.I. sickness benefits, during this time period, then you will be eligible for CERB. The key thing, the thread, the common thread in this eligibility is that CERB is now being extended to people who have received E.I. regular or sickness benefits between December 29th 2019 and October 3rd 2020.

What are the changes made to income during the CERB period? There are certain changes.

It is important to note.  Previously what was stated was that your income in the initial 4 week benefits period (and initial 4 week periods if you recall started from March 15th and ran up to April 11^th), and then the requirement was for that 14, for 14 consecutive days your income had to be 0 in that time period. That has changed.  Now when you’re making your 1st claim, it is not tied to that particular 1st initial period.  Your 1st claim for the 4 week benefit period your income for at least 14 consecutive days should not exceed $1000.  And that is gross income. It is no longer 0.  As long as you have not made more than $1000 in 14 consecutive days in the 1st claim for your 4 week benefits, you are now eligible for CERB.

What does this term income include? This has been explained a bit more in detail.  Let’s go through that. Tips that people earn and declare as income that is considered income.  Non-eligible dividends these are basically monies that you receive from a corporation / small businesses usually, honoraria – this is usually for volunteer workers, royalties for artists—these are some of the examples of income.  Obviously, if you have earned salary or if you have earned your self-employment income, then that’s all income.  The same definition is used for the $5000 requirement.  What is considered income—the same definition applies here.  Please note that pension, student loans and bursaries are not considered employment income and they should not be included.

What about subsequent periods? Previously the requirement was that for subsequent periods your income had to be 0.  That is no longer the case.  Now the requirement is that your employment income should not exceed $1000 for the entire 4 week benefits period. If it is not exceeding $1000, then you are eligible for CERB. This is an incentive for people who are part-time or work less hours and want to continue working certain hours and earn some money.  The important thing is for people who are working part-time and earning less than $1000, the money from CERB is not top up.  It’s not that you are going to get additional money to complete the $2000, you will get the whole $2000. If you earn $1000.00 and you get CERB for $2000 that is $3000.  There is some advantage to people who continue to work part-time or for reduced hours.

Income from other benefits: what is stated is that if you are receiving, for example, disability payments or other provincial support payments or territorial payments, you need to look at your own provinces rules to see whether the rules allow you to get the support payments in addition to CERB.  Each province has to decide that.  What the government website states is that government has encouraged the provinces to allow people to keep both payments.  My understanding is that, so far, only British Columbia has confirmed that it will temporarily allow people to keep CERB and their disability payments or other social assistance payments.  But for other provinces I’m not sure. Please check with your province to see what the rules are with respect to both payments.

We’re talking about employment insurance or CERB – which one you choose or can you choose between the 2? If you are already receiving E.I. benefits whether regular illness, maternity or parental, you will continue to receive E.I. and if you were receiving less than $2000 a month the amount will not increase to $2000. It will remain whatever you are receiving.

If your E.I. expires before October 3rd 2020, as mentioned earlier, you can apply for CERB.  Previously the requirement was that your stoppage of work needed to be related to Covid-19.  Now that is no longer the case. If your E.I. expires prior to October 3rd 2020 you will be eligible for CERB. If you have already applied for E.I. you should not apply for CERB, it will automatically be converted to CERB, if you applied on March 15th or later.  But if you are eligible for E.I. before March 15^th, you will receive your regular E.I. benefits.  And if you are eligible for E.I. on March 15th or later you will receive CERB.  Now again the payment amount for CERB is fixed.  It’s $500 per week and that’s what you will receive. But if your E.I. is less and you are already receiving that lesser amount your E.I. will not increase.  You will not get CERB for that amount.

Let’s talk about this additional eligibility summary. Let’s summarize it.  Who are people who are now going to get CERB? People who have lost their job before Covid-19 or unrelated to Covid-19, but received regular E.I, between December 29th 2019 and or later but before October 3rd 2020. These are people who may not have previously been eligible, but now are eligible. People who are eligible for regular E.I. benefits.  People who are terminated from employment unrelated to Covid-19.  For example, end of contract, they are now eligible for CERB. People who are eligible for the E.I. sickness but their sickness is unrelated to Covid-19, they will be eligible for CERB now. Seasonal workers as I indicated who received regular E.I. until December 29th 2019 or later, until October 3rd 2020, they are now eligible for CERB.

Please note that there are many people who are still not eligible for CERB.  Some of the people who are still not eligible: people who have lost jobs before the onset of Covid-19 and did not qualify for E.I. These are people who did not have sufficient insurable hours to qualify for E.I.  They are not eligible. People who were out of employment for a certain time period and they are now looking for work—they are not eligible. People looking for work but did not receive E.I. between December 29th and October 3rd 2020, they are still not eligible. Part time people, reduced hours people who make less than $2000 but earn more than one $1000 a month they will not be eligible for CERB and, of course, people who did not earn $5000 in the last 12 months of 2019 they are still not eligible for CERB.

Finally, people who have who are receiving E.I., but their E.I. is less than $2000 a month, you’re not getting a top up, they’re not getting CERB. E.I. is what they are going to get.

Hopefully, this gives you some more clarity about what are the changes that have been made. I understand that a lot of people may still not be eligible and we hope that there may be additional changes that will cover people who are in the need of these payments and who may not be otherwise eligible.

Thank-you for watching.

Show Notes:

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Lecture Slides:

Welcome to YouCounsel.

As you may know, the Ontario government has passed an emergency order under Emergency Management and Civil Protection Act This is the Act the court does have power to pass that kind of order.  What are the implications of that emergency order on court proceedings on civil matters, criminal matters?  We will discuss that in today’s lecture.

We begin with our usual disclaimer that this lecture is not legal advice.  If you have any specific questions you should contact a lawyer or a paralegal, Law Society of Ontario or the Ontario Courts administration for further information.

We’ll talk about the implications of the emergency order on limitations period. We will talk about its implications on various timelines for court matters or tribunal matters. We will talk about the discretion of the court or tribunal in these matters.  Finally, we will talk about Notice to Profession that has been issued by the Ontario Courts.

Let’s talk about limitations period.  The emergency order suspended all the limitations period and the start date is retroactive from March 16^th, 2020. As of March 16th 2020 all limitations period are suspended.  How do you figure out the limitation period for your matter? This is something we’ll explain. Let’s assume that the suspension will end on June 14th 2020. I have selected that date randomly but it’s 90 days under the statute that I just showed you.  The government has the power to have the emergency for 90 days – up to 90 days.  If the government would like to extend that emergency order then it has the power to extend it. Or, the government can end the emergency sooner than 90 days. But let’s assume that for the purposes of today’s discussion let’s assume that the extension will run for the full 90 days. We know that for civil proceedings in Ontario you have generally 2 years to commence your civil action from the time that the injury occurred. Now in our 1st example, let’s assume that your original limitations period was going to expire on a date that was after the suspension ended – the original date was after June 14th 2020.

How do you calculate now the new limitations period based on the suspension? You take the original expiry date and then you simply add 90 days, which is the suspension time to it and that will give you the new expiry date. Take an example – where the original limitation period was going to expire on July 31st 2020 – what will be the new expiry date – it will be approximately October 30th 2020. You add 90 days to July 31st and you get the new expiry date based on the suspension.

Let’s take another example.  In this example the limitation period was originally going to expire during the suspension period time. It was going to fall on a timeline that is between March 16th 2020 and in our example June 14th 2020. How do you calculate the new limitations period?  Essentially, you take the suspension end date which is June 14th 2020 and then you add the remaining limitation days during the suspension that you previously had.

Let’s explain that by an example, with an expiry date as April 15th 2020. What will be the new expiry date? You have June 15th when the suspension ends.  Or, assuming, we’re assuming that it ends and then you add 30 days from June 15th. How do we get these 30 days that’s the timeline, that’s a number of days between March 16th when the suspension began and April 15th that was your original expiry date.  You had 30 days that are suspended.  You add those 30 days to June 15th and you get the new expiry date of July 15th 2020.

The same principles apply on the timelines in court proceedings.  Let’s take that by an example and to explain this.  Let’s say that you were served with a statement of claim and originally your statement of defense was due on March 30th 2020. We know that the timelines are suspended as of March 16th so what will be your new timeline for the statement of defense. The deadline will be June 14th is the expiry date for the suspension and then you add 15 days to it. 15 days is the time period between March 16th and March 30th. 15 days and then you get the new timeline for your statement of defense which will be June 29th 2020. These timelines will apply to either tribunal proceedings or court proceedings criminal matters, civil matter, family law matter, all of these are covered.

Let’s talk about court’s discretion. The emergency order indicates that a court or tribunal has the power to order a party to comply with a timeline or a time limit or a time table. Despite the suspension the court does have the power to enforce certain timelines.  This may happen in cases that are urgent matters and the court believes that the matter cannot wait till the end of the suspension and in that case the court will order. If you are part of that proceeding, then the lack of suspension or the cancellation of suspension for your specific matter will be by the order of a court. If you are involved in a matter which is an urgent matter and you want the other party to comply with the time line then, you will have to ask the court to give you an order and then you serve that order on that party to make sure that they comply with the court order.

Let’s talk about Notice To Profession. The courts have issued two notices to profession and public. What are these notices? These are courts’ instructions basically in terms of how they are managing different affairs in the court system. The 1st. Notice To Profession and Public was issued on March 15th – which was prior to the emergency order.  In that order – in that Notice the court had indicated that urgent matters were going to continue to proceed but all other matters, all other hearings were suspended.  I have provided the link for the Notice to Profession which was issued on March 15^th.  Here is the Notice of Profession and the link is available.  You can see that the court had suspended all the hearings during the suspension time but it talks about the procedure to bring urgent matters before the court.

The 2nd Notice was issued in April 2nd 2020.  It allowed again for urgent matters to proceed.  Also the courts indicated that certain selective matters will continue to proceed or will be allowed to proceed.  That link is also available.  Here is the Notice and it applies to different regions.  Let’s look at the one in Toronto.  You will see different criminal matters, family matters, are all indicated here, civil matters are indicated and then you will see that selected pretrial conferences will proceed certain motions, certain applications will proceed. By all means check on these Notices to see whether your specific matter can proceed under the circumstances or not.

Hopefully this gives you an understanding of how various court matters have been suspended and if you are involved in a court proceeding or you intend to commence a court proceeding, what will be the implications on various timelines in your case

Thank-you for watching.

Show Notes:

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Lecture Slides:

Welcome to YouCounsel.

This video shows you screenshots of an application process done online for Canada Emergency Response Benefit. This was shared to us by a subscriber, so I thought I’ll post a video so you can see beforehand what you will experience through the process of online application.

This lecture is not legal advice.  If you have any specific questions you should contact a lawyer or a paralegal or Canada Revenue Agency for this particular application.

Once you log into your CRA account—and you should have created the account by now—your   name will show up here.  This will be the page that you will see which says Covid-19 Canada Emergency Response Benefits. Information here states that the government will have access to your tax information for the purposes of CERB.  You click Apply.  It takes you to the next page which talks about direct deposit. If you will like the payment to be deposited directly in your account, make sure that you have set up the direct deposit information prior to starting this application.  If not, then, this application will send you again to input that information and then bring you back. But if you put that information before you come and apply for a CERB, then there will be great.

Based upon what you’re going to do you choose one of the options: (a) update my direct deposit information for CRA payments only.  (b) If you are also a recipient of CPP, then 2nd and 3rd option may apply to you. In any event choose the correct option.  Click next. Then it will take you to the eligibility page. This is the same eligibility criteria that I had explained to you in my previous lecture. I’m not going to get into much detail here.  But, as long as you understand that for the 1st period which is from March 15th to April 11th it ends on April 11th. I mentioned April 12th, but it’s April 11^th—the last day for the 1st 14 consecutive days you are not to have earned any income—through employment income, self-employment, provincial or federal benefits, relating to maternity or paternity leave or parental leave. So if you’re not that for subsequent periods please make sure that after from April 12th onward you need to have 0 income.

If you earn $100 or $200 or whatever, that makes you ineligible. (1) The income has to be 0; (2) you have not quit your job voluntarily; (3) you have not resigned—and we have covered this extensively.  And this is important (4) you have not applied for, nor are you receiving CERB or EI benefits from Service Canada for the same eligibility period. If you applied for EI or if you have applied for CERB through Service Canada, you should not apply here. You will not be eligible.  And that (5) you earned minimum $5000.  Eligibility period is fixed. Over here you choose the eligibility period—it is March 15th 2020 to April 11th 2020 for the 1st one and subsequent periods also show up here. You can only apply for one period.  You cannot apply even if you expect that you are terminated and you will not find a job for the next 4 months you cannot choose another period until you are close to that period. March 15th 2020 to April 11th 2020 is selected.

Now this is the certification part.  You are confirming all of this: that you are eligible and you say yes.  I certify the following – you check here.  Then you click next.  It will bring you to this direct deposit information page. If you want the money to be paid by direct deposit, the information will show up here. Please review it.  Make sure it’s correct.  If that information is not correct, then you have to click here. It will take you out of this particular application and take you to the place where you can update your direct deposit information. You will have to restart your application and come back here and then once you get to this page you say I confirm.  The information is correct.  And then click submit.  Then once it is submitted you will receive this confirmation page.  If you have not received this confirmation page, then the application has not been successfully submitted.

It clearly states that it is submitted for this period.  You will receive money within 3 business days.  You don’t need to do anything else.  No need to confirm further.  No need to contact CRA.  You will get it.  Then they also say that these are taxable benefits. And you will get the information slip for the tax year. For a different period once it’s April11th and you have not found another job or you’re not going to earn any income, then you can apply from April 12th onwards for the next 4 week period so on and so forth until all 16 weeks of income has been exhausted.

Hopefully this gives you some sense of how you will see the process unfold online it is pretty straightforward and I’m sure that you will once you’re able to logon and I know I’ve heard that a lot of people had issues logging in because of so many users trying to access it.  Once you’re logged in, the process is straightforward.  Hopefully this is helpful.

Thank you for watching.