Announced today, the CERB/CESB exception and $300/month supplement has been extended. The supplement will be applied automatically for the next 2 months. However, the fight isn't over yet! Rates must be increased PERMANENTLY to livable amounts.

There has been some confusion about whether the supplement will be extended to all assistance recipients or not, because of discrepancies between the press release the ministry sent out and the information provided on the ministry website. The ministry sent out the following message via MySelfServe on July 13th:
 

"Updates from the Ministry
From: Ministry
Tuesday July 14, 2020

Federal Emergency Benefits Exempted:
Earning exemptions for clients receiving federal government emergency benefits, such as Employment Insurance (EI) benefits, Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB), and Canada Emergency Student Benefit (CESB) are fully exempt for existing clients already receiving Income or Disability Assistance and remain for as long as those programs are in place.
 
Temporary $300 COVID-19 Crisis Emergency Supplement:
The Province is extending the provincial temporary $300 per month COVID-19 crisis supplement for Ministry clients who are not receiving any of the federal government supports. This payment will be automatically included on cheques issued on July 22 and August 26, 2020.  This extension also applies to those eligible to receive the Senior’s Supplement.
 
Senior’s Supplement Recipients
Eligible clients who receive the Senior’s Supplement will continue to receive the temporary $300/adult COVID-19 Crisis Emergency Supplement. This payment will be automatically included on Senior Supplement cheques issued on July 29 and August 27, 2020."

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Our Next Steps

We are working on setting up meetings with key politicians to bring forward your stories and our demands. We are still accepting survey responses and open letter signatures, and will share the latest with them.

Stay tuned for upcoming events and actions -- we are collaborating with various groups to plan online and possibly in-person (and physically distanced) events.

Please continue sharing our campaign and contacting your government representatives! Our suggested actions and tips can be found here: https://www.300tolive.org/campaign.html

 In solidarity,
300 To Live Organizing Team

Yesterday, the #300ToLive campaign was in the news! Two disabled people in our organizing team, along with two others who have been independently campaigning to retain the increase, were interviewed. Read the article here.

“A lot of what I’m hearing from members in AUC and the Vancouver Queer Spoon Share is requests at the end of the month — ‘I’m struggling to make ends meet,’ and ‘Someone just lend me $10 so I can eat today.’ It’s heartbreaking.” - Vivian Ly

“That $5 for a box of freezer bags is something that usually breaks me. I have to put things back at the grocery store by the time we’re two weeks into the month. This time, the feeling was different. I didn’t have to panic over small things, several times a day. I’m raising a one-year-old and doing that in poverty is incredibly stressful. We need this extra $300 a month.” - Billie Rose

“We’re living in a real state of poverty right now and with this COVID, everything has gone up in price. (The supplement has) just helped out tremendously and we would like to keep it that way.” - Sonjia Grandahl

“We want to make it permanent because the rates have been suppressed for so long." - Brent Frain