The Manitoba government will pay residents up to $2,000 if they go back to work and stop collecting federal COVID-19 benefits.
The Manitoba government will pay residents up to $2,000 if they go back to work and stop collecting federal COVID-19 benefits.
The province will give successful applicants to its new program an initial $500 payment, plus three payments of $500 each every two weeks over a six-week period.
Applicants must work at least 30 hours per week to qualify for the first payment, and then declare they are still working in order to receive the next payments.
They must also be receiving and voluntarily stop payments from the Canadian emergency response benefit (CERB), Canadian emergency student benefit (CESB) or similar COVID-19-related support from Ottawa, the province said in a news release Tuesday.
Premier Brian Pallister says he believes the CERB discourages people from working full-time because it limits how much one can work before losing it, and people would rather be back at work than benefiting from a government program.
WATCH | Brian Pallister on why the program is aimed at CERB beneficiaries:
Manitoba will pay people $2,000 to get off COVID-19 benefits and go back to work. 0:26
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