It was March 2020, just before the first lockdowns of the COVID-19 pandemic, and Ottawa resident Stephanie Fortin had recently lost her full-time retail job.
As soon as businesses closed their doors in compliance with public health measures, it became near-impossible for Fortin to find work. So she applied for the Canada Emergency Response Benefit, a hastily assembled government program that offered eligible recipients $500 a week from March 15 to Sept. 26.
Fortin is one of some 20.7 million Canadians who received pandemic supports in 2020, according to data from the 2021 census that Statistics Canada published on Wednesday.
The data show that Canadian incomes trended 9.8 percent higher during the early pandemic than five years earlier, with Alberta and Newfoundland and Labrador seeing the only overall decreases. The median after-tax household income was $73,000, a reflection of slow employment income growth over five years and higher government transfers in 2020 specifically….