Federal benefit access rate far from equal

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This article was published 12/07/2020 (1530 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA — Urban Indigenous people are not accessing the COVID-19 emergency benefit as much as the general population, despite similar job losses, according to data obtained by the Free Press.

Statistics Canada data analyzed by Finance Canada shows 13.4 per cent of off-reserve Indigenous people reported receiving the Canada Emergency Response Benefit, when surveyed in late May as part of the Labour Force Survey.

That’s compared with 18.7 per cent of non-Indigenous people.

‘If they are asking about advice (on applying), we persuade them not to… because they’re going to have to pay it back’– Jarred Baker, Eagle Urban Transition Centre

Finance Canada provided the data, which it had accumulated as part of the fiscal snapshot it released July 8.

“Employment losses among the urban and off-reserve Indigenous population have been comparable to those of non-Indigenous Canadians. Despite this, the application rate for the CERB from the urban and off-reserve Indigenous population is lower than that of non-Indigenous Canadians,” reads the report.

The analysis did not specify the rate of applications for First Nations living on reserves.

Statistics Canada said it assessed too little of a group to desegregate the situation or urban-Indigenous people in different cities.

The findings did not surprise the head of one of Winnipeg’s largest Indigenous service centres.

“These people have needs and they need to be supported,” said Jarred Baker, program manager for the Eagle Urban Transition Centre.

Many clients are already on provincial Employment and Income Assistance and would have their CERB cash clawed back later, despite a move by the province to categorize less of the CERB money as earnings that reduce EIA entitlements, he said.

Some people don’t have enough employment hours to qualify for CERB, while others were initially told by officials they qualified, only to find out they didn’t meet the criteria.

“If they are asking about advice (on applying for CERB), we persuade them not to do it because they’re going to have to pay it back,” Baker said.

“Everyone’s expenses during this time has increased. You have to be isolated, which means you have to stock up… and not everyone has the bank account where you can do that.”

The Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs, which runs the Eagle Urban Transition Centre, has also used federal dollars to buy prepaid, AMC-branded credit cards to help First Nations people in Winnipeg with expenses, though the organization has faced scrutiny as fees eat up a substantial portion of the card’s balance.

Inadequate supports means people will get desperate, Baker said.

“When you’re in survival mode, you’re going to do what you need to do,” he said, adding it might also be hard for people without a computer to access CERB.

That echoes testimony in May by the head of the National Association of Friendship Centres, who told the House finance committee charity staff across Canada were scrambling to provide the know-how and access to sanitized computers to help people apply for the benefit.

“We have some friendship centre (heads) who are just exhausted from applying for small grants, and also helping community members apply, in a safe way, for CERB and other benefits they have access to,” Jocelyn Formsma told MPs on May 19.

dylan.robertson@freepress.mb.ca