The Prime Minister is defending proposed penalties for fraudsters who take advantage of the Emergency Response Benefit.
Justin Trudeau says the legislation coming forward tomorrow will not target people who made an honest mistake when claiming the money.
“We’re making sure that we do have the tools, hopefully we will not have to use them very much at all, because the vast majority of people are of good faith and just trying to support their families,” Trudeau emphasized.
Trudeau said while more people are moving to the wage subsidy as they return to work, the CERB is not ending yet.
“Obviously, with around three million people unemployed and looking for work, it is going to be a while before we get enough jobs to consider that things are back to normal. So we are looking very carefully at how we will move forward,” he pointed out.
The PM also shot down the idea of a financial update, which the Opposition has been calling for. Trudeau says his government will be open about its spending but can’t make any accurate predictions about the economy.
“As the economy starts up again, it’s very difficult to know what that will look like. We can certainly have a range of projections that will vary widely, depending on how many businesses re-open and to what percentage,” Trudeau admitted.
