Carle Jasmin
I’m really fed up with the prejudices of amateur social media doctoral students who comment on everything and often know nothing! In the week before writing my article alone, I saw frustrated Facebook comments on at least 14 occasions yelling at ECP providers, even though ECP hasn’t even existed since 2020!
They blame what they should call the Canadian Economic Recovery Benefit on the fact that there is a shortage of workers in Quebec and blame the federal government for giving people $ 2,000 for doing nothing, for vacation for months. So I decided to explain to you what PCRE was for me.
I have been receiving a benefit of $ 1,800 / month since the start of the program because I am self-employed, as with the vast majority of beneficiaries. We were not employees before the end of the world, but contract workers. The PCRE is not aimed at the unemployed who are entitled to unemployment insurance, but rather at those who, because of health measures, have a marked drop in their income. In my case, I am a professional contract journalist and writer. When the pandemic shut down Quebec and Canada as a whole, on March 13, 2020, I found myself with a significant drop in my income since my clients were also experiencing a drop in their income.
To be eligible for PCRE, you don’t have to be unemployed! One of the criteria says that you must have suffered a reduction of at least 50% of your income. In my case, even though I work full time and more than ever to find new clients, the contracts are only partially coming in. I ensure the survival of my individual business, I am not sleeping under the apple trees of Mont-Tremblant as many think. I’m breaking my ass to get out of the crisis and get my business going. This is what the ECONOMIC RELAUNCH Service is for !!!!!
You will tell me that the economy is recovering fairly well, despite the restrictions still in place, but that is an illusion. Self-employed workers like me depend on the income of their clients. The vast majority of my past clients are in operation, of course, but in many cases, they have limited income or they are still a little too apprehensive to invest when their shortfall is catastrophic.
So, for my part, I am holding on and surviving because the PCRE is there for people like me. The whining professionals of social networks often do not understand it because they are employees who, precisely during the crisis, were on unemployment insurance to stay at home. I do not know of any self-employed worker who has remained inactive even during the worst of confinement. And as for the labor shortage claimed to be the fault of PCRE, there is no PCRE in the United States or in Europe and yet they need employees so badly that they suffer from uncontrolled inflation and business closures because they have no one to employ, nor the financial means to pay them a salary of $ 28 / hour as a convenience store cashier. This is the real state of affairs, so enough with the prejudices!