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ATHABASCA — Aspen View Public Schools (AVPS) has identified almost 200 staff or contractors who are eligible to receive the Critical Worker Benefit funded by the federal and provincial governments.
AVPS secretary-treasurer Aimee Hirtle informed trustees at their March 11 meeting that 193 staff or contractors have been identified as eligible to receive the benefit and payments that will be made by the end of March.
“I wanted to just update you on the Critical Workers Benefit program,” said Hirtle. “It was the $1,200 payment that was announced on Feb. 10 for eligible employees. And eligible basically was 300 hours that they worked from October 12 to January 31, in certain areas of the province during the pandemic.”
The benefit, which is run by Alberta Labour and Immigration, comes from up to $118 million in provincial money plus $347 million from the federal government’s benefit program for low-wage critical workers and is administered by the province.
“So, our eligible employees included teacher assistants, bus drivers, custodians, and administrative support in schools,” she said. “We compiled our list, and thank you publicly to Kim (Carson, director of human resources) and Bernie (Kerbes, payroll support staff) and everybody that helps me to file that, (and) Rhonda (Alix, transportation coordinator) with transportation contractors.”
Hirtle said 136 staff and 57 contractors were identified as meeting the criteria for the benefit and will receive $231,600 combined.
“We've submitted it for payment, and then we will pay it out to our staff by the end of March. We had 193 eligible employees and-or contractors that will receive the payments,” she said. "So that's exciting. Really, really good news for our staff to be able to give them that little extra for the hard work they have been doing since the pandemic.”
Trustee Nancy Sand asked if the benefit was taxable and Hirtle noted it is.
“It will run through payroll; the contractors will run through accounts payable and then we pay it out to the contractors, and then the contractors pay it out to their people ff they're not independent and then yes, our 136 employees, we’ll pay through payroll to them and it'll go on their T4,” said Hirtle.
She added part of the reimbursement to AVPS includes their portion of the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) and Employment Insurance (EI) for approximately seven per cent on top of what is paid to staff and contractors.
According to the Government of Alberta website, the benefit will be distributed to up to 380,000 workers in the healthcare, social services, education and private sectors and the government is working directly with social services and the education sector to distribute the money.
Private sector employers and employers with eligible workers in First Nations communities must apply on behalf of their eligible employees by March 19.
