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Today the feds handled 1,000 applications per minute. Holy f&*@. https://globalnews.ca/news/6783205/coronavirus-canada-cerb-trudeau/ Let me try to give some context for how impressive this is.
In 2018-19 (per ESDC results report: https://www.canada.ca/en/employment-social-development/corporate/reports/departmental-results/2018-2019.html#h2.2), 2.8 million EI claims were processed ALL YEAR. That's 5 per minute on an annualized basis. We HOPE the current demand for help doesn't last a full year.
In the same year BC (I'm not picking on them, they just have some ok public provincial data: https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/governments/organizational-structure/ministries-organizations/ministries/social-development-poverty-reduction/annual-report), handled 91K applications for My Self-Serve (online system for social assistance). That's 0.17 applications per minute on an annualized basis.
In 2018, I tried to estimate the usual delay that Canadians might face if they applied for income support through EI, social assistance, OAS/GIS +++
The best estimate I could get to, after reading as much as I could, was about 1 month (which is why I favour a 1 month threshold for asset-poverty over a 3 month which is IMHO arbitrary but common used in the international literature).
If we have been able to find a way to handle 1,000 claims per minute where most will wait 3-5 business days for a payment, we may be among the most advanced countries in the world on social policy right now. There, I said it. Not perfect but still.
