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Canadians Who Don't Qualify For CERB, Other COVID-19 Support Fear Falling Through Cracks

OTTAWA — Kim Troy feels forgotten by the federal government.

For the past 13 years, the Edmonton resident has run a daycare in her home. She works 10 hours a day looking after other people’s young children. She feeds them, crafts with them; nothing in her daily routine has changed. Except, the number of children she cares for has halved. Her daily costs are nearly as high with three kids as they were with six, but it’s getting harder to make ends meet.

“Financially, I lost more than half my income,” Troy told HuffPost Canada on the phone from her home in Alberta Thursday.

Most of the children now left in her care have one parent who is an essential worker: one child’s mother is a nurse, another works at a correctional facility. Troy has thought about taking on more children — but her husband is hesitant, she is personally concerned, and the parents whose children she looks after also worry.

“Those are new exposures that could risk everyone here.”

Edmonton day home provider Kim Troy is shown in a photo with some children she cares for. (The parents of the children consented to this photo being shared with HuffPost Canada).
Edmonton day home provider Kim Troy is shown in a photo with some children she cares for. (The parents of the children consented to this photo being shared with HuffPost Canada).

So instead of expanding, Troy is left wondering, and hoping that the Liberals in Ottawa will soon realize their string of programs designed to help workers who’ve seen their incomes dry up because of the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent government shutdowns isn’t as inclusive as they like to portray.

“Me and a lot of ladies fall through the cracks,” Troy said. “A lot of ladies have closed, but I don’t want to close. I still want to provide the care to those who need it, ’cause if we all close, there would be no essential workers working. So they need us. But help us, so we can stay open.”

Troy is one of tens of thousands — perhaps hundreds of thousands — of Canadians who are not eligible to apply for any federal assistance. As a self-employed worker, she does not benefit from the 75 per cent wage subsidy championed by the business lobby. She has no employees and therefore cannot qualify for the $40,000 small business loan, $10,000 of which can be forgiven.

Because she hasn’t...

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