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Alberta

$1,200 Covid payment for 76,500 more Albertans including truck drivers, janitors, taxi drivers, security guards, farm workers, etc

Published

4 years ago

5 minute read

More Albertans to receive $1,200 Critical Worker Benefit

76,500 more workers to receive a one-time payment to recognize the risks they have taken to support Albertans and the economy.

The Critical Worker Benefit is a joint federal-provincial program with $465 million available to recognize the hard work of critical workers during the pandemic.

During the first round of the Critical Worker Benefit Alberta’s government provided $1,200 payments to over 277,800 workers in the healthcare, social services, education and private sectors who deliver critical services to Albertans or support food and medical supply chains.

Workers in new job categories will be eligible for the same $1,200 payment. This includes workers in social services and the private sector who provided critical services to Albertans, were essential to the supply and movement of goods, and faced greater potential risk of exposure to COVID-19 through their work environments.

To be eligible for the benefit, employees must have worked a minimum of 300 hours during the period of Oct. 12, 2020 to Jan. 31, 2021. Support staff working in licensed child care must have worked a minimum of 243 hours during this period.

Eligible social services sector employers do not need to apply. Employers of support staff working in licensed child care programs, disability support workers providing independent living supports, respite, community access, and employment supports, and front-line workers in seniors-serving organizations and non-profit affordable housing providers will be contacted by the Government of Alberta to confirm details.

Eligible private sector workers making $25 per hour or less will also qualify for the benefit. These workers include: truck drivers, farmworkers, security guards, cleaners, funeral workers, employees at quick service and dine in restaurants and taxi drivers who can demonstrate they worked at least 300 hours during the eligibility period. The complete list of eligible workers for this phase of the program are available in the Application Guidelines for the private sector at alberta.ca/criticalworkerbenefit.

Private sector employers can apply on behalf of employees at alberta.ca/criticalworkerbenefit as of June 22. Employers have until July 23 to apply.

Employers will be responsible for distributing the $1,200 Critical Worker Benefit to their eligible employees.

Alberta’s government is responding to the COVID-19 pandemic by protecting lives and livelihoods with precise measures to bend the curve, sustain small businesses, and protect Alberta’s health care system.

Quick facts

  • Alberta’s government contributed $118 million to the $465 million program.
  • A total of about $367 million has been spent on about 289,800 workers.
  • $355 million has been spent on about 277,800 workers in the phase one of the Critical Worker Benefit. This includes social services workers, health care workers, education workers and critical private sector workers, such as grocery cashiers, pharmacy assistants, and gas station attendants.
  • Announced in April 2020, Alberta also used $12 million of the one-time federal funding along with a provincial investment totalling $30 million to date to provide a $2 an hour wage top-up for about 12,000 health care aides working in long-term care and designated supportive living facilities.
  • About $99 million is available for about 76,500 workers in the social services and private sectors.
  • The break down of benefit recipient is:
    • Up to $18.5 million in the social services sector supporting 14,300 workers
    • Up to $80.3 million in the private sector supporting 62,200 workers

 

Workers in the following private sector occupations are eligible to receive the Critical Worker Benefit:

  • truck transportation, primarily engaged in the transportation of goods, in the following occupations:
    • ­transport truck drivers
    • ­light duty cleaners
    • ­janitors, caretakers and building superintendents
    • ­security guards and related security services
    • ­material handlers
    • ­dlivery and courier services drivers
    • ­other trades helpers and labourers
  • crop production, animal production or aquaculture directly involved in the production of food for human consumption
  • funeral homes, cemeteries and crematoria
    • not eligible: municipally-run funeral homes, cemeteries and crematoria
  • security guards
    • not eligible: private investigators, armoured car guard, house detective, personal bodyguards and security
  • light duty cleaners, janitors and specialized cleaners working in commercial, institution and industrial locations
    • not eligible: private residence cleaners
  • taxi drivers
    • not eligible: chauffers and drivers of ride-share companies such as Uber and Lyft
  • workers in full-service restaurants and limited services eating places – workers must be primarily involved in the preparation, cooking or service delivery in an eligible establishment
    • not eligible: drinking places that do not serve food onsite

Read the application guidelines for the private sector for more information.

Related Topics:

This is a news release from the Government of Alberta.

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Premier Danielle Smith and Minister of Energy and Minerals Brian Jean issued the following statement on industry group “Build Canada Now” calling on federal party leaders to call an energy crisis and prioritize energy projects:

“Alberta’s energy sector has long been the economic engine of Canada and has never been more critical to Canadian sovereignty and prosperity.

“During the last decade of Liberal-NDP government, multiple destructive energy policies have resulted in more than $280 billion dollars in projects being delayed, cancelled or shut in by the proponents. These are projects that would have created tens of thousands of jobs, generated hundreds of billions in government revenues, secured energy security for Eastern Canada and made our nation less dependent on the United States.

“Ottawa’s elected eco-extremists have done everything they can to keep our oil and gas in the ground – that has to change now.

“We wholeheartedly support the call by Canada’s energy business leaders to find a new way of getting major projects built. Over the last couple of months, we have seen the discussion around our oil and gas shifting across the country, and these industry leaders have captured this spirit perfectly in their letter to the federal party leaders.

“The world is desperately looking for predictable, affordable and accessible energy. Alberta has one of the largest oil and gas deposits on the planet, including by far the largest of any free and democratic nation. Our recently released study on Alberta’s oil and gas reserves found 1.36 quadrillion cubic feet of gas and 1.8 trillion barrels of oil, of which more than 130 trillion cubic feet of gas and 167 billion barrels of oil are recoverable with today’s technology.

“To leave this treasured resource in the ground would be an outright betrayal of current and future generations of Canadians. And yet, that has been the mantra of the Liberal-NDP government for the last decade.

“The new prime minister needs to call an election immediately so the next government can begin to undo the tremendous damage the previous federal government has done to this country, and most especially, to Alberta.”

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Constitutional lawyer spearheading separation from Ottawa urges Albertans to lobby Premier Smith for referendum

Published on March 18, 2025

By

Conspiracy Facts With Jeffrey Rath Jeffrey Rath

FREE ALBERTA NOW!

If one recalls their history, revolutions have started over the rallying cry of “no taxation without representation.”

The facts referred to below were provided by a, well educated, fellow Albertan who has culled these facts and statistics from available public records.

In Canada, of the 338 Members of Parliament, Alberta gets 34 MPs. If Alberta received the MP per population ratio of the Maritime provinces, it would get 63 MPs. If Alberta followed the formula for the “Province of Prince Edward Island” it would have 107 MPs.

Representation in the Senate is more fair to regions than the House of Commons, but Senators are not elected (as requested by western provinces), they are appointed by the Prime Minister and they serve until age 75 with no term limits. As the Liberals have formed government more often than Conservatives, the Senate is dominated by Liberals bent on hollowing out the economy of Alberta for the benefit of non-Albertans.

The makeup of the Supreme Court discriminates against Alberta; of 9 judges, Quebec and Ontario get 6. Alberta seldom receives fair settlements from the Supreme Court (all 4 western provinces get only 2 Justices)

Alberta sends $3 Billion annually more to Ottawa for the pension plan than it gets back in benefits.

In federal taxes, Alberta sends over $60 billion per year to Ottawa, and gets less than half of that back in “services”. These so called “services” include a Firearms Registry that exists only to strip Albertans of their rights to own personal property. Most so called “federal services” are seen by most Albertans as either being completely unnecessary or easily replaced by Alberta Government employees within current staffing levels.

Under the Equalization program Alberta has transferred at least $700 billion to Eastern Canada (2/3 to Quebec), and Quebec is guaranteed to receive $10 billion in payments per year regardless of Alberta’s fiscal status on an annual basis.

An interesting side note is regarding the Equalization program. Alberta, as a “have” province, gives Billions of dollars annually to “have not” provinces. In fact, Quebec and New Brunswick have huge natural gas reserves. Bureaucrats in those provinces decide it’s easier to receive welfare payments from Alberta than to develop and sell their own resources. The financial revenue is the same, but Equalization does not generate jobs. Residents of those provinces would benefit immensely from Alberta taking itself out of the present system.

Albertans are over taxed, over governed and over regulated by politicians that are clearly hostile to the interests of Alberta and the interests of the citizens of the soon to be independent Commonwealth of Alberta.

The day that Alberta leaves Canada Albertans will no longer be subject to Canadian Federal Income Tax, Carbon Tax, Excise Tax, Capital Gains Tax, Goods and Services Tax and all other Federal Levies and Tariffs including the dairy monopoly and price fixing scheme imposed by Ottawa on Alberta Farmers, Ranchers and Indigenous People. An Additional 60 BILLION a year in tax revenue will remain in Alberta kicking off economic growth in Alberta unseen in Alberta’s history. Alberta’s independence will create an independent Commonwealth with the highest GDP per capita of any country in the world. Albertans will be finally free from all of the debt and over taxation created by idiotic politicians from Quebec and Ontario who literally believe that punitive taxes on working Alberta families will change the weather.

Albertans will enjoy at LEAST a 30% jump in their standard of living and savings as a result of no longer having to support ungrateful, greedy politicians in Quebec, Ontario who take their marching orders from the self proclaimed “Laurentian Elite” and the World Economic Forum.

Every Albertan who cares about the prosperity of their family needs to write Premier Danielle Smith and request that she consult be with the Alberta Prosperity Project as to the form of the referendum question and set a referendum on independence PRIOR TO THE 15th of December of 2025.

Adult citizens of Alberta need to be allowed to vote THIS YEAR in a referendum to express their will as free, adult citizens as to whether they wish to continue to be misgoverned by politicians more beholden to foreign (non-Alberta) interests than they are to the interests of Alberta Families.

Jeffrey R.W. Rath B.A. (Hons.), LL.B. (Hons.)

Foothills, Alberta

March 17, 2025

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