WINNIPEG — The Manitoba government is offering a subsidy for people who return to full-time work during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The money will be available to people currently collecting the federal government's income-replacement programs — the Canada Emergency Response Benefit and the Canada Emergency Student Benefit — and who give them up to return to work for at least 30 hours per week, Premier Brian Pallister said Tuesday.

The money will be handed out in four payments of $500 over six weeks.

"Workers will be able to receive the $2,000 bonus regardless of how much they earn working," Pallister said.

He said the provincial program will take away a disincentive for people on the federal programs to return to work. The Canada Emergency Response Benefit is only available to people who have lost jobs or seen their hours cut, and who now make less than $1,000 per month.

"It's become increasingly evident that the (federal) program ... is actually preventing some Canadians from returning to work on a full-time basis," the premier said, although he did not provide provincial data.

"Our program is designed so that people don't suffer financially when they go back to work."

The Opposition New Democrats said many people may not have jobs to go back to. They pointed to the Progressive Conservative government's cuts to the public sector and accused the Tories of failing to help private-sector employers weather the pandemic.

"The premier is trying to shame people on (the federal benefit) to go back to jobs that aren't there," NDP Leader Wab Kinew said in a written statement. 

Pallister also revealed Tuesday more details about the province's plan to reopen schools on Sept. 8. Regular classroom instruction was shutdown in March due to the pandemic, although some small-group tutoring and assessments have continued.

Pallister confirmed that to make up for some of the lost time this spring, teachers will have fewer professional development and administrative days during the new school year so that they can be replaced by classroom days.

The Manitoba Teachers Society said it has only been told that three of the traditional 10 professional development and administrative days have been moved up to early September, before students return to class. Classroom days will then fill in those three spaces.

The union's president, James Bedford, said he's had no indication so far that the other seven days will be altered.

"What we understand is that the remaining seven will be allocated as they always are during the school year," Bedford said.

Pallister said more information on the back-to-school plan will be revealed shortly by Education Minister Kelvin Goertzen, whose only announcement on the subject so far has been a brief series of messages posted on social media.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 23, 2020

Steve Lambert, The Canadian Press