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Results: 1 - 15 of 33
View Wayne Easter Profile
Lib. (PE)
Okay. I do have a chair's ruling on this, Mr. Julian, which I think you were expecting.
On Bill C-30, I'll read the one for clause 264 first. The other rulings on the other two amendments are basically the same, only with different acts.
Bill C-30 seeks to amend the Canada Student Loans Act to temporarily suspend interest and interest payments with respect to guaranteed student loans during the period that begins on April 1, 2021, and ends on March 31, 2023. The amendment attempts to suspend interest and interest payments by a borrower for an indeterminate period of time that begins on April 1, 2021, therefore extending the time the government would assume the payment of interest to the lender, which would result in increasing payments from the consolidated revenue fund. The amendment as proposed is inadmissible as it requires a royal recommendation since it imposes a new charge on the public treasury.
That relates to NDP-11.
The same wording, basically, relates to NDP-12, as it deals with the Canada Student Financial Assistance Act. It would be the same wording for NDP-13 on clause 266 as it relates to the Apprentice Loans Act.
On all three, I rule them inadmissible based on the need for a royal recommendation, since it imposes a new charge on the public treasury.
View Peter Julian Profile
NDP (BC)
Yes. I'll just finish briefly. I haven't taken a lot of airtime over the last couple of days.
Given that it is the historical ability of the finance committee, with the government being pressed to provide a royal recommendation, I will appeal your decision to the committee, and the committee can decide whether they choose to overrule your decision and ultimately adopt these amendments. That, of course, increases pressure on the government to do the right thing and provide the royal recommendation.
View Wayne Easter Profile
Lib. (PE)
All right.
I will ask the clerk to go to a recorded vote on the chair's ruling.
(Ruling of the chair sustained: yeas 9; nays 2)
(Clauses 264 to 267 inclusive agreed to on division)
(On clause 268)
The Chair: Thank you very much, Ms. Damsbaek. That was much appreciated.
We will turn, then, to division 31 and first nations elections. There is only one clause.
We'll go to Christopher Duschenes.
Does there need to be an explanation on this? I guess we had better. We might as well.
Go ahead.
Atiq Rahman
View Atiq Rahman Profile
Atiq Rahman
2021-05-17 17:27
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I will make it very short.
I am the assistant deputy minister of the learning branch at Employment and Social Development Canada.
Division 30 proposes to waive interest accrual on Canada student loans and Canada apprentice loans for two years between April 1, 2021 and March 31, 2023. No interest will accrue during this period, ensuring that borrowers facing financial impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic can better manage their student debt as the economy recovers.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. I will be happy to take questions.
View Chrystia Freeland Profile
Lib. (ON)
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. I will leave it to you to introduce the officials later on, but let me say thank you very much to the officials for being with us.
Mr. Chair and members of the committee, thank you for inviting me to speak to you today about Bill C-30, Budget Implementation Act, 2021, No. 1.
After more than 14 months of uncertainty and challenges, Canadians are continuing to fight COVID-19, but we know there is light at the end of the tunnel. As we fight the third wave, more and more Canadians are getting vaccinated.
Bill C-30 is an essential piece of legislation that, once enacted, will allow us to implement our plan to finish the fight against COVID, create jobs and a swift recovery from the COVID recession and lay a foundation for robust, inclusive, green, long-term economic growth.
This budget is about helping middle-class Canadians, helping workers and helping more Canadians to join the middle class. It is about embracing this moment of global transformation to a greener, cleaner economy. It is a plan that will help Canadians and Canadian businesses heal the wounds of COVID and come roaring back.
First, we need to finish the fight against this virus. This bill includes a one-time payment of $4 billion to the provinces and territories to support their health care systems, support that is so essential as we fight the third wave. This is in addition to the $1 billion to support the provinces and territories as they ramp up their vaccine campaigns.
We are making progress in our vaccination efforts, and I know that team Canada can vaccinate even more Canadians even more quickly, and we will. I was vaccinated with the AstraZeneca vaccine at a Toronto pharmacy 15 days ago, and I encourage all Canadians to get vaccinated as soon as it is their turn.
The pandemic has caused a recession, so we need to start by rolling out a comprehensive plan for jobs and growth, to address the disproportionate impact the recession has had on women, young people, racialized Canadians, low-wage workers and small business.
A cornerstone of our plan is a historic investment of $30 billion over five years, reaching $9.2 billion annually, in permanent investments to provide high-quality, affordable and accessible early learning and child care across Canada. Our goal is that within five years, families everywhere in Canada should have access to high-quality child care for an average of $10 a day. Dear colleagues from all political parties, let's make a commitment together today to all Canadians. Let's get this done.
I want to take a moment to recognize Quebec's leadership, especially that of feminist Quebeckers, who have led the way for the rest of Canada.
While we know better days are ahead, many families are still struggling. Around a million Canadians either remain out of work or are working significantly fewer hours than they were pre-pandemic. We must support hard-hit Canadians and businesses across the country so they can recover as soon as possible.
Bill C-30 includes emergency supports for Canadian workers, businesses and families.
The legislation extends the Canada emergency wage subsidy, the Canada emergency rent subsidy, and lockdown support through to September 25, 2021 which will help protect millions of jobs.
With this legislation, we are providing a bridge for people who are unable to work because of COVID by extending income supports, maintaining flexible access to EI benefits, and extending the EI sickness benefit from 15 to 26 weeks.
Bill C-30 also introduces a $15 an hour federal minimum wage. It expands the Canada workers benefit, extending income top-ups to about a million more low wage workers, and lifting nearly 100,000 Canadians out of poverty. These are measurable concrete steps to help Canadians who need help.
We must also help small business, the backbone of our economy and every main street in the country. To do that, we need to improve access to capital and help businesses hire more workers, in particular, through the new Canada recovery hiring program.
Young Canadians have made tremendous sacrifices this past year to protect their elders, and now, they need our collective support.
Through Bill C-30, we will make college and university more accessible and affordable by extending the waiver of interest accrual on federal student loans until March 2023. This will mean savings for more than 1.5 million Canadians repaying student loans. We will not let young Canadians become a lost generation.
Mr. Chair, I have spoken today about just a few of the measures included in Bill C-30, measures which will make a tangible positive difference in the lives of millions of Canadians.
This is a plan for jobs, growth and the middle class. It is a plan built around helping Canadians recover, succeed and thrive.
I recognize the critical role parliamentary committees play in scrutinizing government legislation, and I'm grateful to all of you for your hard work.
Bill C-30 is a historic first step towards recovery and new economic growth for future generations of Canadians.
I would be pleased to answer any questions you have as you study this critically important piece of legislation.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
View Peter Julian Profile
NDP (BC)
Thanks very much, Mr. Chair.
Thanks to all our witnesses for coming here today. That includes the departmental witnesses. We hope your families continue to stay safe and healthy.
Congratulations, Madam Freeland, for shattering that glass ceiling as the first Canadian woman to present a national budget.
Now, the context of that national budget is that Canadians are suffering through an unparalleled crisis. At the same time, we've seen Canadian billionaires increase their wealth by $78 billion. Hundreds of thousands of Canadians have not been able to return to work. Yet Bill C-30 slashes, in just a few weeks' time, as the third wave crashes on our shores—the most devastating wave yet—the CRB from $500 a week to $300 a week. At the same time, it does nothing to address the fact that Canadian students are having to pay back student loans during a pandemic.
Will the government accept amendments to ensure that the CRB is not slashed from $500 to $300 in the midst of a pandemic and that students get a debt moratorium so that they are not having to pay back student loans in the middle of this crisis?
View Chrystia Freeland Profile
Lib. (ON)
Mr. Julian, thank you very much for the question and for your continued advocacy for low-wage workers and students.
Let me start with students. I do believe that this budget provides unprecedented support for students and young Canadians, with more than $5 billion in support for young Canadians. It includes support in three things, actually, in the Canada student grant—in extending to 2023, as I said in my remarks, the interest moratorium and also in lowering the amount and raising the income threshold at which Canadian students need to begin repaying their loan after they graduate. That is real support for our young people, and they deserve it.
I'm happy to talk about the CRB later on, if you would like. I see that you're wanting to speak, Mr. Julian.
Mr. Chair, maybe I've run out of my time for an answer.
View Sean Fraser Profile
Lib. (NS)
View Sean Fraser Profile
2021-05-11 17:03
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I wasn't expecting a question in this round, so I'll treat it as a bonus.
Before I do, let me just put on the record my extraordinary disagreement with our colleague Ms. Jansen's perspective on the CERB. I can tell you the feedback that I heard, Minister, in my own community. During a time when people were being forced to stay at home to protect the health and well-being of their families and members of their communities, this is a program that made sure they could pay their rent and mortgages and put food on the table.
I want to direct my question towards the measures targeting young people, particularly students, in this budget.
Before I got into politics—in fact, before I got into anything—I was a student president at StFX University. Go X Go!
I see Wayne shaking his head up there; I'm a homer.
I was one of the folks who went to Ottawa to lobby MPs for important changes. Some of the things in this budget around extending a moratorium on interest on student loans, not requiring students to pay back their student loans until they're earning $40,000 a year, extending the doubling of the Canada student grant—which is going to cover, on average, 90% of the tuition for the lowest-income families in Canada—are all terrific measures. However, there is one in particular that I don't think has got the attention that it deserves. There is a new proposal in this budget that is going to ensure that students don't need to pay back their student loans if their monthly payments exceed 10% of their household income. I should say that they'll still be required to pay that portion back, but the amount beyond that 10% will be covered, both principle and interest, by the federal government.
In the case of students for whom, say, 10% of their monthly income is $400 a month and whose monthly payments are $650, this is going to extend hundreds of dollars every month to low-income students when they're trying to get their feet under them.
Could you tell me the motivation behind this policy and the importance of supporting young people? I'll add that the reason I care about this is that I think the next cure for cancer or the next business solution might be locked in the mind of some kid who can't afford to go to school. It's not just that kid who loses out when he or she can't get an education; it's every single one of us.
If you could highlight the importance of some of these measures to make sure that we can improve the affordability of an education, I would be grateful.
View Chrystia Freeland Profile
Lib. (ON)
Thank you, Mr. Fraser.
I do want to start by underscoring, as I did in my reply to Ms. Jansen, the strength of my agreement with you about the CERB and the CRB. Our government really stepped in when literally millions of Canadians through no fault of their own were suddenly left without a job and without the ability to find a job. I am really, really glad that we took action to support them. I want to say to those Canadians that we will continue to be there. The support is there to September 25.
On students, again I find myself in violent agreement with you, Mr. Fraser. When it comes to the unprecedented support for students in this budget, let me offer three motivations.
I really believe that young Canadians have made a huge and very particular sacrifice during the pandemic. They have curtailed their social lives and many of them have had to learn virtually. They've really done it for us, for their parents and for their grandparents. I think we owe it to them to support them now.
There is a robust body of academic research suggesting that if you graduate into a recession, your lifetime prospects on everything from income to likelihood of having children to likelihood of marriage to even your health can be stunted. This budget really believes in supporting young Canadians. It does that through the measures to support students that you listed and through aggressive action to create work experience and job opportunities. About 500,000 work experience and job opportunities will be created in this budget.
Nicole Brayiannis
View Nicole Brayiannis Profile
Nicole Brayiannis
2021-04-20 16:05
Thank you, Chairperson.
Thank you to the committee for inviting the Canadian Federation of Students to speak on this issue.
I want to start out by acknowledging the privilege that comes with addressing you today, as I ask you to join in paying respects to the original caretakers of the land where I reside, in so-called Pickering, Ontario, who are the Anishinabe, the Haudenosaunee and the Mississauga of the Credit peoples.
To share a bit of context, the Canadian Federation of Students is the oldest and largest student organization in Canada. We represent more than 530,000 students across the country, and our membership includes both domestic and international students at the college, undergraduate and graduate levels, including full- and part-time students.
I want to emphasize how proud I am of the student leaders who, for over a year, have been tirelessly lobbying for improved support. From parliamentary petitions signed by nearly 10,000 Canadians, to a federal lobby week dedicated to a “Just Recovery for Students”, we have been calling on our elected officials for adequate financial support.
This pandemic has proven to be a struggle across sectors. As classes shifted online and work became even more precarious, we continued to see students experiencing new and enhanced challenges to accessing post-secondary education.
While we appreciate the more than $9-billion student investment made last April, we want to address the ongoing shortfalls experienced by students and the PSE sector as a whole. To date, as reported yesterday within budget 2021, more than $2 billion remains unspent.
Instead, students have received a failed $912-million Canada student service grant, inaccessible exclusion criteria for centralized financial relief supports and a six-month moratorium on federal student loans that ended in October 2020. In fact, students spent weeks fighting for the Canada emergency student benefit, only to receive less funding support and to have it endure for less than half of the pandemic.
Therefore, our first recommendation is to uphold commitments to students and graduates by allocating the remainder of unused funds to expand the current and any future financial relief programs to include every domestic and international student and recent graduate. Alongside this, students need an investment in accessible mental health supports that are adequately funded and staffed to address the very real threat of a youth mental health crisis.
As youth unemployment hovers around 20%, following a record-breaking 29% in May 2020, students need a commitment from their elected officials to lay the foundation for a stable future. While the Canada summer jobs program holds value in providing youth opportunities for employment, it excludes international students and those over the age of 30.
Amidst ever-changing familial and personal situations, relief for every person living in this country needs to be readily available, without the stipulation and added barrier of productivity demanded only of young people in this challenging time.
Budget 2021 also promises to continue the doubling of the Canada student grants program for an additional two years, which will assist many students with continuing their studies into the next academic year. Alongside this, we need to see a focus on more permanent measures for low-income students and sustainable investments into the post-secondary education sector.
Our PSE system has been increasingly underfunded since the late 1970s and now faces extreme precarity, as we've seen in recent events with the collapse of Laurentian University in Ontario. Therefore, our second recommendation is to invest in the targeted funding of federal grants, with the intention to move to a universal framework that matches 50% of student tuition costs in each province and territory.
Canada is one of the only G7 countries without a federal post-secondary education act. To stay competitive on a global scale and continue to attract and retain talent within this country, our government needs to be investing in the education sector to see large-scale advancement.
In order to ensure that money is being effectively spent, we need a holistic approach to understanding the impacts of this pandemic. As part of this process, the PBO has been tasked, on the federation's behalf, with producing estimates and cost frameworks for this short- and long-term grant-matching program, federal student debt elimination strategies and annual program values to ensure investment adjustments with inflation, enrolment growth and institutional costs.
Yesterday's budget also waives the accrual of interest on student loans for the next two years and increased the income repayment threshold for borrowers living alone to $40,000.
This is a step in the right direction, but our third recommendation is to listen to student calls for the reintroduction of moratoriums until at least December 2021, implement a stopgap urgent loan forgiveness program and permanently eliminate interest on student loans.
Debt creates economic drag and causes students to delay making large purchases and life choices, and actually reverses the positive, upward mobility associated with pursuing a post-secondary degree. Now more than ever, the PSE sector is going to be critical in advancing our country forward. Re-skilling will be key to upkeep with the technological and virtual shift we've seen this past year, as well as prepare us for the parallel need for a greener economy.
In a just social and economic recovery from COVID-19, student and post-secondary issue prioritization will be critical in rebuilding Canada.
The Canadian Federation of Students appreciates being a part of this consultation to address these needs, and I look forward to your questions. Thank you.
View Chrystia Freeland Profile
Lib. (ON)
Thank you, Mr. Chair and members of the committee, for the invitation to be with you virtually today. Accompanying me virtually from the Department of Finance are Maude Lavoie, Dave Beaulne, Trevor McGowan, Lesley Taylor and Nicolas Moreau.
I'd like to begin by acknowledging that today is a sombre anniversary. It is one year since COVID-19 was declared a global pandemic by the WHO.
On this national day of observance, I know that all of us honour the memories of all those who have lost their lives to this disease, and we have the deepest compassion, I know, all of us in this committee, for their families and their loved ones.
To the extraordinary Canadians who have been serving on the front lines in our country's fight against COVID-19, to personal support workers in long-term care facilities, to all of our health care workers and to the essential workers keeping food on our shelves, from cashiers to truck drivers, let me just say thank you.
I'm happy to be with you, parliamentary colleagues, to talk about Bill C-14, which would implement several important and necessary measures from the fall economic statement, which I tabled last November 30.
For over a year now, Canadians have been coping with an unprecedented crisis that is still in progress. But spring is coming and there will be better days ahead.
Until we've got COVID-19 under control, our government will do everything it can for as long as it's needed to help Canadians get through the crisis. From the beginning of the pandemic, the Government of Canada has done everything in its power to get the virus under control and limit its economic impacts. So far, $8 out of every $10 spent in Canada to combat COVID-19 and help Canadians came from the federal government.
In the 2020 fall economic statement, we set out a detailed plan to protect Canadians, jobs and companies in Canada during the pandemic's second wave. We took rapid action to meet these commitments.
By supporting Canadian businesses, jobs and families, not only were we helping our communities get through a difficult winter, but also preventing economic after-effects. This support will allow for a full and robust economic recovery once the virus is totally under control.
Bill C-14 is an important component of our government's economic plan. It makes it possible to move forward with the emergency measures outlined in the economic statement designed to provide immediate assistance to families with young children, students and businesses, in addition to measures to protect the health and safety of Canadians.
When we debate Bill C-14, here is what is concretely hanging in the balance.
The fall economic statement announced a new $1 billion safe long-term care fund to help provinces and territories protect seniors. Of this, Bill C-14 would provide $505.7 million immediately, while our need is most urgent, to support long-term care facilities over the coming months to help prevent the spread of COVID-19 and to help prevent outbreaks and deaths in supportive care facilities.
In addition, we have proposed, through this bill, to provide up to $395.6 million to support a range of health initiatives to help Canadians cope during the pandemic and to continue our fight against the virus with vaccine funding and development, testing and treatment.
The challenges brought on by this pandemic have caused great hardship for Canadian families with young children and brought unanticipated costs. Bill C-14 proposes to provide immediate relief for low- and middle-income families with young children who are entitled to the Canada child benefit by providing up to $1,200 in 2021 for each child under the age of six. Families that have a net income at or below $120,000 would receive four tax-free payments of $300. Families entitled to the CCB who have a net income above $120,000 would receive four tax-free payments of $150, for a total benefit of $600.
This temporary assistance would directly benefit more than 1.5 million families and more than two million children at a time when many are still grappling with the financial impacts of the pandemic.
If I can speak personally for one moment, I am hearing so clearly from my neighbours and constituents who have young children just how hard COVID is for them. I know we would all love to give them this extra support. As you all know, we can't get it to them until Bill C-14 receives royal assent.
Our government is also working to protect the future of students who had to leave school or who were unable to obtain summer internships or jobs.
Through Bill C-14 we will eliminate interest on repayment of the federal portion of Canada student loans and Canada apprentice loans for 2021-2022. This important measure will provide $329.4 million to 1.4 million Canadians who are looking for work or who are in the early stages of their career.
The bill also formalizes an amendment to the Income Tax Act that will allow the Canada emergency rent subsidy to recognize rent payable as an eligible expense, provided certain conditions are met.
As members of this committee will recall, the Canada Revenue Agency is currently administering the rent subsidy with rent payable as an eligible expense. This is because the businesses relying on this subsidy told us that it was what they needed, and all of us listened. Not all small businesses have the cash flow to pay their rent on the first of the month with the reimbursement to come later. This bill ensures that those small businesses can get the support they need. Again, I'm sure we've all heard from small businesses in our ridings who really need that support.
Additionally, Bill C-14 authorizes payments to Canada's six regional development agencies for the regional relief and recovery fund. The government announced the $962-million fund on April 17, and then expanded it to $1.5 billion on October 2. As a next step, Bill C-14 proposes a further top-up, to $2 billion, for this fund. It helps support businesses that for one reason or another are unable to access other federal pandemic support programs.
The point I'm making here is really simple: The measures in Bill C-14 are essential. Canadian families and Canadian businesses need this support to get through the crisis.
Colleagues, today let's set aside partisan sparring and work together to support the people all of us serve. I welcome vigorous debate, care and study. Indeed, debate has been central to Canada's response to COVID-19 so far. Our government has received constructive input from all parties, very much including all the members of this committee. I recognize the critical role parliamentary committees play in scrutinizing government legislation. I understand that the opposition's formal role is to oppose, and that delay forms part of the opposition tool kit in the Westminster parliamentary system. I get that. When I was first elected, I sat in the opposition benches. I asked questions in committee of the member for Abbotsford, who now sits in this committee with us all, when he served as trade minister.
That said, it is now time for us to move forward. Canadians need the concrete support this bill offers, and they need it urgently. At second reading, some of our colleagues on the opposition benches set partisan politics aside to do what is best for Canadians and supported the bill. I was frankly surprised that the Conservatives chose to do the opposite. I was surprised they did that even as they put forward an opposition day motion urging the government to support small business.
I say to my Conservative colleagues, on this committee and in the House, that—
View Peter Julian Profile
NDP (BC)
Thank you.
You talked about comprehensive supports. Here's another example: part 2—student loan payments. Despite the fact that the NDP steered through a motion, which passed unanimously, for a moratorium on all student loan payments, what we have is just a moratorium on interest.
Students are struggling. People with disabilities are struggling. These are situations that are well known to Canadians right across this country. The NDP has also proposed supports going immediately to people with disabilities, far beyond the partial payment that was made this fall and that took nine months to occur.
Why didn't the fall economic statement ensure that there was a moratorium on all student loan payments and that there were adequate supports in place for people with disabilities?
View Chrystia Freeland Profile
Lib. (ON)
Mr. Julian, I'm really glad you raised students. In my opening remarks, I singled out the importance of Bill C-14 in allowing us to provide more support for students. It is really important to me, and you're right to raise the issue.
What I would say, collectively, is that we need to understand that the three groups that have been hardest hit by losing their jobs are youth, women and low-wage workers—particularly racialized and new Canadians. We need to be sure that our support is targeted there.
View Chrystia Freeland Profile
Lib. (ON)
The fall economic statement details our plan to protect Canadian lives, Canadian jobs and Canadian businesses, and we are moving quickly to deliver on our commitments.
The legislation I tabled last week, Bill C-14, proposes to move forward with several urgent COVID-19 related measures in the fall economic statement that will help Canadians get through this pandemic and strengthen our health response.
For example, the legislation would provide low- and middle-income families who are entitled to the Canada child benefit with additional support of up to $1,200 for each child under the age of six in 2021.
It would also help young Canadians by eliminating, for one year, the interest on their repayment of the federal portion of the Canada student loans and Canada apprentice loans.
Bill C-14 also sets out up to $505.7 million in 2021 to help long-term care facilities prevent the spread of COVID-19. Under the bill, $400 million in additional funding will also go to various measures including support for mental health, substance abuse, COVID-19 testing and telemedicine.
I hope all members will consider this legislation with the urgency it deserves. I know that we all know that Canadians are counting on us.
Mr. Chair, last week's fall economic statement also outlined a growth plan to jump-start Canada's economy once the coronavirus is under control.
The government will invest between 3% and 4% of Canada's gross domestic product, or GDP, over three years. The government will provide further details on its recovery plan in the months ahead leading up to budget 2021. The plan will be based on creating good jobs for the middle class.
This, Mr. Chair, is needed economic policy and this is smart economic policy. One of the lessons of the 2008-09 global financial crisis is that withdrawing fiscal support too soon after a deep downturn can hamper growth for years afterwards. Our government will not repeat that mistake.
That said, our stimulus, our growth plan, will be time limited and carefully targeted. Fiscal guardrails will help us establish when the stimulus will be wound down. When the economy has recovered, time-limited measures will be withdrawn and Canada will resume its prudent and responsible fiscal path.
Uncertainties about the timing of the pandemic and global economic developments mean that the timeline for recovery should not be locked into a rigid, predetermined calendar. Instead, the government will track progress against several related indicators, recognizing that no one data point is a perfect representation of the health of the economy. These indicators include the employment rate, total hours worked and the level of unemployment in the economy.
Mr. Chair, I'm very glad the committee is beginning its consultations. The federal government will launch our own pre-budget consultations in the new year. We all very much look forward to hearing from Canadians about their priorities as we design our growth plan.
I look forward to hearing Canadians' ideas on what we can do to support families and businesses, kick-start the economy and keep Canada's strong fiscal position.
We Canadians have faced adversity in the past. We've faced tough winters, and we have always emerged stronger than before. I know that we will this time too.
I would be pleased now to answer your questions.
View Julie Dzerowicz Profile
Lib. (ON)
Thank you.
Thank you so much, Mr. Shugart. Thanks for being here today. Thank you so much for your leadership and service to our nation, especially during this unprecedented time.
I want to start off by going back to March and April, when the severity of the pandemic became obvious and the Government of Canada was very focused on providing Canadians with as much help as possible. I just went through everything that was announced before April 22, and I literally have four pages of announcements. There was an unprecedented amount of work done by our civil servants to provide supports to the homeless, to the arts sector, to the business sector, to individuals—you name it. We introduced a whole number of programs.
In terms of students, as you just mentioned, there was a huge concern about the unevenness of what was available in terms of jobs and opportunities and the ability for students to be able to continue to have financial means to be able to support their ongoing education. On April 22, $9 billion was announced to support post-secondary students. There were four key programs. There was the Canada emergency student benefit, expanding more jobs, in addition to CSJ, with adjustments to Canada student loans and grants to make them far more generous. This last segment was the Canada student service grant, which was up to $912 million. It was meant as a way to provide an opportunity for students to not only volunteer, serve in their community and help non-profits, but also to earn a little bit of extra money.
Again, my understanding is there was a stacking element. You could actually have up to three of these components. We could give many opportunities to students across this country and give them the best ability to be able to continue to work or continue to support their community while also trying to raise some funds for their ongoing education.
There's this false narrative around the federal government setting up the Canada student service grant to provide an hourly wage for students. Can you please relate to the committee whether there was the intention to provide an hourly wage or whether it was meant as part of an overall package, some additional support, in a grant format?
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