A quick list of government pages with links or instructions on how to get support during the coronavirus pandemic. City of Ottawa - Get the latest information from Ottawa Public Health. City of Ottawa Support and Assistance - Suspension of city accounts, employment and social services, human needs task force and more
Plain Language Guide for Getting Support (pdf file) - Carleton professor Jennifer Robson has created a fantastic plain language guide to help those trying to access government programs in the time of coronavirus. It's a great starting point. Here's the Ottawa Citizen article. Here's a list of the main areas addressed in the guide:
Who can I call for information or to ask a question about financial support from government right now?
I need to take sick leave because I’m ill or self-isolating or have to quarantine.
I can’t work because I’m caring for someone who is sick.
I’ve been laid off
I am at home because my kids cannot go to school or daycare. I need money to make ends meet
My employer can’t pay me but I haven’t been laid off
I’m not sure that my employer is following the rules
I’m self-employed. What benefits can I get ?
I’m a college or university student and I was counting on my summer job to pay tuition in the fall. What do I do?
Special GST tax credit, approximately $400 single/$600 couple
Income tax filing now June 1, 2020
Mortgage support via banks (some issues on this one)
BIG ONE: New Canada Emergency Response Benefit worth $2000/mth for next 4 months. For people unable to work, unemployed, sick, quarantined, etc
Student loans interest free for next 6 months
CRA CERB system gets stellar reviews - "so easy I thought it was fake". Note, you need a CRA account to do this. HuffPost article (quotingCanadian Centre for Policy Alternatives) providing more details on who is not covered by CERB Canada Economic Response Plan doesn't cover everyone - up to 1/3 unemployed Canadians not covered by CERB (CUPE article) Job loss must be related to COVID-19 and must have happened on or after March 15. This means students who are unable to find a summer job, seasonal workers, and workers who were already unemployed are not eligible for the CERB. In addition, applicants must not be receiving any income from employment, so workers whose hours have been reduced but are still working are not eligible.
How badly do you need a job? Most companies are probably focused on managing remote workers and in many cases layoffs. Active recruitment is a lesser priority. If the emergency government assistance via EI and other programs is not enough, then consider pay-the-bills roles with companies and industries that are hiring now. Some companies are hiring (sample article from Globe & Mail).
It's all about networking - but online. Face to face networking, events and conferences are gone for awhile. However, PNJ has always advanced that online networking is key to growing and sustaining your business and personal networks. Online networking is in vogue and you need to brush up on your skills. Linkedin, Twitter, Facebook and other social media sites are great starting points to reach out. One aspect that's really important is staying in touch with any organization with which you were already engaged. Just do it the right way.
Spend your time wisely! The fact that hiring is paused or slowed down gives you an opportunity. Do your research. How is a company responding? How do they treat their employees? You'll never find out more about a corporate culture. Take time to do some training or skills improvement. There's lots of stuff online these days. Can it help you? Finally, take a few minutes to breath and reflect. Here's a chance to really think about what you want to do, the industry and markets. It may have been imposed upon you but it's real.
Updated Employment Resources
Most Employment Ontario organizations (they provide free career and job search services) continue to operate. They provide email, phone and video services.
Several Ottawa groups have now established webinars to help job seekers
Agilec (Ontario) has an extensive online library which includes interactive instructor-led sessions
YMCA (Ottawa) has now published their online calendar
We will add others as we become aware of them
Ottawa Public Library provides access to to a variety of resources for free, including Lynda from Linkedin. You need a library card but can obtain a temporary one online quite easily.
We will be creating a public google doc for anyone to access that will list all the organizations and links that are shared with us. We will also try an experiment to create another public doc where people can add links themselves.
For now, if you have a suggestion, please email me - [email protected]
Staying Sane
An opportunity to share tips and links to sites on how to manage working from home, job search
