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Alberta MLA Says CERB Recipients Spent ‘Funny Money’ On Cheezies

A bowl of puffed cheese snacks. 
A bowl of puffed cheese snacks.

You know how the song goes: “If I had $2,000 dollars (if I had $2,000 dollars). I would buy me some cheezies (some nice, flamin’ hot Cheetos).”

Not quite the Barenaked Ladies 90s hit you remember from back in the day?

In a recently surfaced video, one Alberta MLA suggests that’s how people spent their Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) money.

Lac Ste. Anne-Parkland United Conservative MLA Shane Getson made the comment at a town hall earlier this week. In a video, he’s seen arguing that CERB recipients are unwilling to work because they’ve become dependent on the “funny money” and spend it on drugs, cartoons and, yes, cheezies.

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“[Businesses] can’t hire people ... because they’re making more on CERB, eating cheezies and watching cartoons, I guess,” Getson said.

Getson also argues that the CERB has led to more drug use and addiction problems.

“All of a sudden you’ve got that population that has all that extra cash and now their addiction levels are going through the roof,” he said. “And then what? The funny money runs out.”

While opioid deaths have spiked in recent months due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there is no evidence that there is a direct link to the CERB.

WATCH: Minister outlines new benefits. Story continues below.

According to Statistics Canada, over one million Albertans applied for and received the CERB over the past six months, which was designed as federal financial support for people whose work was impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. In April and May of this year, the unemployment rate spiked to 15.5 per cent in the...

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