Petition to the Government of Canada
  Whereas:
  
    The Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) was created to provide financial support to employed and self-employed Canadians who were directly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic;
    The CERB program was drawn up in haste and the federal government pledged that it would be adjusted to ensure that no one would be left behind;
    At the onset of the program, it was stated that the $5000 income requirement for the CERB was arbitrary and that the federal government’s intention was to get support to as many Canadians as possible and as quickly as possible;
    The stated intent of the CERB was income replacement in an economy constrained by pandemic control measures;
    The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives estimates that 175,000 workers did not qualify for the CERB, despite being laid off due to the COVID-19 pandemic, because they did not meet the $5,000 income requirement;
    The federal government asked Canadians not yet included in the CERB eligibility criteria to be patient as the program was adjusted and expanded;
    Individuals who did not qualify for the CERB due to the $5000 income requirement waited in good faith, but the CERB program was not adjusted as promised;
    The  replacement Canada Recovery Benefit (CRB)  maintained the $5000 income requirement; and
     Both programs have fundamentally failed to deliver on their stated mandates for a significant number of working Canadians.
  
  
    We, the undersigned, citizens and residents of Canada, call upon the Government of Canada to retroactively remove the CERB and CRB’s $5000 income requirement to allow individuals to receive both backdated and future payments for which they were previously ineligible due to this requirement.