Government extends CERB to international students and foreign workers

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government quietly extended Canada Emergency Response Benefit to international students and temporary foreign workers – a move that could cost taxpayers up to an additional $8 billion.

While not making an official announcement, the Government of Canada’s official CERB Questions and Answers web page^[1]https://www.canada.ca/en/services/benefits/ei/cerb-application/questions.html now says “temporary foreign workers and international students – may be eligible to receive the Benefit if they meet the other eligibility requirements.”

Update 12:40PM PDT: Since the publication of this article, the statement “temporary foreign workers and international students – may be eligible to receive the Benefit if they meet the other eligibility requirements.” has been removed from the web page. Here’s a screen capture we took before it was taken down

“International students, please note! You can collect CERB if you meet the eligibility criteria,” Hedy Fry, Liberal Member of Parliament for Vancouver Centre, tweeted on Monday^[2]https://twitter.com/HedyFry/status/1257490238865395713.

Canada is home to approximately half-a-million international students and a similar number of temporary foreign workers, according to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada statistics^[3]Calculated based on IRCC statistics obtained from Open Data Portal https://open.canada.ca/data/en/dataset?_organization_limit=0&organization=cic.

At $2,000 per month for four months, extending CERB to non-citizens could cost Canadian taxpayers up to $8 billion.

The news was met with anger by residents of Vancouver, where international students can often be seen flaunting their wealth by driving around in luxury sports cars^[4]https://universityofbeautifulcars.tumblr.com/ and buying mansions in Vancouver’s tony Westside neighbourhoods^[5]https://www.theglobeandmail.com/real-estate/vancouver/canadian-banks-mortgage-guidelines-favour-foreign-home-buyers/article31869946/.

“I already feel Canadian schools have given up on [local students] because they make more money off foreign students,” Vancouver resident Jenny Lee said. “Why should Canadian taxpayers subsidize foreign students’ lavish lifestyles?”

International students have become a lucrative business for many Canadian universities and colleges, as foreign students pay more than triple the tuition of a domestic student.

“Trudeau should use that money to fund more places for Canadian students at universities,” Lee added.

“International students are supposed to have enough funds to cover their living and tuition expenses without working in Canada – that’s one of the requirements for the study Visa,” Fellow BC-resident Wilson Osifo who hails from the west African nation of Benin said. “The fact that international students can work part time is a privilege and not a right. So what extra benefits are they still looking for?”