The federal government needs better, more timely data to guide efforts to support employees that are impacted by the Covid-19 outbreak, the C.D. Howe Institute’s working group on the crisis says.
In a new research note, the Toronto-based think tank’s working group on the pandemic examined the government’s options for continuing to support workers that have relied on the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) after their eligibility runs out.
In particular, the group is concerned with CERB recipients who remain unemployed and without access to Employment Insurance (EI) once CERB expires.
The group considered two basic options: extending CERB with new phase-out provisions, and building on the existing EI system to provide longer-term support.
The decision between these options is largely based on the duration of the economic disruption, the pace of the recovery and the number of workers who need ongoing support, the institute suggested.
“Given the likelihood of a slow recovery, the working group leans toward building onto existing systems, such as EI, that are designed for the long term and further strengthening and expanding them to cover a larger number of Canadians through the recovery,” it said.
However, a key challenge, the group suggested, is a lack of timely, reliable data.
“A major issue is to identify the gaps in EI eligibility among CERB recipients who will remain unemployed when CERB ends,” it said.
The working group highlighted the challenge of real-time income testing of programs such as CERB.
“The main question is how to get timely and accurate information to support the administration of programs,” it said.
One option, the group suggested, is for the government to work with payroll companies to improve access to timely data.
“The federal government working with the industry would gather only the specific data it needs for its immediate needs,” the institute said, “while employers would continue to maintain the information, leading to accurate information on a timely basis.”