Out of work in a crisis: Thousands facing financial peril amid pandemic

Julie Johnston has five kids to feed, a mortgage to payand retirement to think about.

Now the Ottawa mother has another worry: figuring out how she'll copefinancially after being laid off from her job atGoodLife Fitness a little over a week ago.

Like thousands of Canadians, Johnston has suddenly found herself unemployed as more and more businesses close their doors to comply withefforts to slow the spread of COVID-19.

"I'm a single mother, I have a mortgage, my kids live with me it's pretty scary, because that's my only source of income, and my career,"Johnston said.

What its like to be laid off during the COVID-19 pandemic

5 years ago

Duration 1:04

Ottawa residents who are out of work due to the coronavirus pandemic say theyre worried about making mortgage or rent payments, and buying food. Fitness manager Julie Johnston and chef Bruce Wood spoke to CBC News.

Johnston said she has enough savings to lastseveral months, but without a pension, that money was supposed to go toward retirement and other future expenses.

"Mortgage is the number one thing that I worry about," she said. "I have five kids that are going to be living here. You can imagine, I have three teenage boysthe grocery bills are just through the roof.... It's getting a little bit scary, what we're going to lose."

Johnston said her employer will pay her until April 1, and after that she will apply for employment insurance.

1M Canadians applyfor EI

On Wednesday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said nearly one million Canadians applied for EI last week. Earlier this week, Parliamentpassed a sweepingaid package bill worth $107 billion.

The legislation will boost access to employment insurance, and includes the Canada Emergency Response Benefit forwage earners, contract workers and self-employed Canadians who don't qualify for EI.

• Parliament passes Ottawa's $107 billion COVID-19 aid package

Bruce Wood, a chef, has also been laid off because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Wood was employed by Operation Come Home, an education and support centre for homeless and at-risk youth, where he cooked for a social enterprise catering service called FoodWorks.

Wood, whose spouse works as a funeral director, said they have enough savingsto last on one income until the end of April.

"If it starts to look like it's going to go past that, then we're going to have to do some thinking about how we're going to make it work," he said.

"It's very upsetting to know that you don't know when your next paycheck is going to be. And I haven't heard anything back from employment insurance yet as to whether I'm going to qualify or not."

Self-employed also anxious

There's equaluncertainty for Ottawa's self-employed, including Marc Behiels, a graphic and web designer.

"I have nothing. I have not been contacted by any clients. I have no job prospects, nor contracts that are possible right now," Behiels said.

His family of four will now have to rely on his wife, a physician, to sustain them financially. But Behiels is more worried that when the pandemic finally ends, some of his clients will be out of business, and that will trickle down to him.

"Basically, if all of my clients dry up and none of them have any money, I don't have a business anymore," he said.

Behiels said he's hoping to apply forgovernment help specifically for the self-employedoutlined earlier this week. If he qualifies, he plans to put that money"straight back into the economy" by spending it on local businesses.

"That's what it's going to take ... and that's where it needs to go. It needs to go to supporting small businesses and the local economy."