The federal government announces the end of the CERB program and presents new support measures for unemployed workers
On August 20th, the Minister of Finance, Chrystia Freeland, announced that the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) would be transitioning to a modified Employment Insurance program as of September 26, 2020, as part of Canada’s COVID-19 Economic Response Plan. In order to keep supporting unemployed workers, this plan provides temporary measures to facilitate access to EI benefits, as well as three (3) new benefits regulated by the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA).
To ensure that the employees you did not rehire or who will no longer be working for you are entitled to these benefits, you must, if you have not yet done so, generate their Record of Employment (ROE), even if they are currently receiving the CERB.
If you had already issued the ROEs when termination occurred, you do not have to generate a new one, unless the employees concerned received employment income since.
Although some employers received a notice from Service Canada to that effect in August, we want to remind you that the following instructions for generating ROEs, provided at the onset of the pandemic, are still effective:
- If your employee is sick or quarantined due to COVID-19, enter, in block 16 – Reason for issuing this ROE: “Code D – Illness or injury”.
- If your employee is laid off due to a shortage of work or business closure due to COVID-19, enter, in block 16 – Reason for issuing this ROE: “Code A – Shortage of work”.
- If your employee refuses to come to work but is not sick or quarantined, enter, in block 16 – Reason for issuing this ROE: “Code E – Quit” or “Code N – Leave of absence”.