1/ THREAD: I see a lot of Liberals scoff when people rightly claim the NDP were responsible for many of the best aspects of the government's COVID relief benefits (a robust $2K/month CERB, 75% wage subsidy, CESB, $2K/extended CRB, and CRSB paid sick days). So here's the receipts.
2/ March 18, 2020 the Liberals' initial pandemic response was to expand EI access with an Emergency Care Benefit ($1800/month/15 weeks), boost the CCB, a one-time GST rebate, student loan payment deferrals, 10% wage subsidy, and tax deferrals until August.
cheknews.ca/trudeau-announ…
3/ March 23: The NDP demanded a 75% wage subsidy instead of 10%, and called for $2K cheques for *every* Canadian adult + $250 for each child (Mar 23). They also called for a mortgage/rent/utilities moratorium, and boosted domestic PPE production.
burnabynow.com/local-news/jag…
4/ Mar 26: Liberals scrap the previously announced Emergency Care Benefit & (vaugely defined) Emergency Support Benefit. Replaced with CERB: $2K/month for 4 months. Eligibility is expanded to those who qualify for EI, but many people are still left out.
globalnews.ca/news/6735158/e…
5/ April 11: Jagmeet Singh calls for the government to remove eligibility criteria and make CERB universal. Singh notes that he is already negotiating with PM to close gaps in government support eligibility.
beta.ctvnews.ca/national/2020/…
6/ April 29: Under pressure from NDP and student organizations, the Liberals create the Canada Emergency Student Benefit (CESB). As reported, NDP ensured CESB was also boosted to $2K/month for students with disabilities and/or children.
theglobeandmail.com/politics/artic…
7/ September 23: Singh demands the newly announced Canada Recovery Benefit (CRB) be boosted from $1800 to $2K/month to match the phased-out CERB. He also demands concrete legislation on national paid sick days. Both are conditions for NDP confidence support of the throne speech.
7/ October 06: The throne speech passes with NDP support, only after Trudeau acquiesced to Jagmeet Singh's demands that the new Canada Recovery Benefit (CRB) be boosted to $2000/month and the government legislate paid sick days.
7.5/* Amendment: the Liberals initial proposed CRB rate was actually only $1600/month ($400/week). Sept 24 it was reported Liberals agreed to boost the CRB rate to $2000/month ($500/week) as a condition of NDP confidence support for the throne speech.
huffingtonpost.ca/entry/jagmeet-…
9/ Aug 14, 2020: NDP gets motion passed for $2 billion in federal transfers to provinces for child care. Singh also demands an extra $10B over 4 years for national, universal childcare. By #Budget2021 Liberals acquiesced, expanding the initial NDP proposal into $30B over 5 years.
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