P.E.I. hopes to apply CERB lessons to poverty in the province

When P.E.I.'s special legislative committee on poverty begins to meet again, members are hopeful there will be some key lessons to be learned from theCanada Emergency Response Benefit, a federal government relief program that is providing workers affected by COVID-19 with $2,000 a month.

For Hannah Bell, a Green Party representative on the committee, the key lesson of CERB is that a basic income guarantee is not a pie-in-the sky idea.

"What it does show is that, you know, after years of saying that this kind of program is just not possible, that it absolutely is and it can be rolled out really quickly," said Bell in an interview with CBC Radio's Island Morning, alongsideLiberal MLA Gord McNeillyandSocial Development Minister Ernie Hudson.

McNeillysays he is looking forward to seeing how CERB plays out in the long term.

"We haven't seen the full cycle," said McNeilly.

"We're still in the process of giving out important and necessary funding to Canadians, but how do we pay for it when the revenues have gone down as a nation?"

Hudson said there is no doubt there will be important lessons to be learned from CERB, as well as the many provincial programs rolled out in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

"What the positives were, where the drawbacks may have been, and take that forward in the recommendations that we ultimately bring forward to the legislature," said Hudson.

The special committee on poverty was originally expected to give its recommendations on a basic income guarantee to the legislature by July, but all party legislative work has been suspended since mid-March.

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