A tax-free, $1,000 payment from the B.C. government is available to apply for as of today.

The program, called the B.C. Emergency Response Benefit, is money for people who have lost income because of the pandemic.

Finance Minister Carole James says in the first 45 minutes of the application process being open, more than 16,000 B.C. residents had applied for this extra income.

James says a prerequisite is that people have to be eligible for the federal government’s Canada Emergency Response Benefit. Those eligible will get the payment as a direct deposit.

“People will be getting the $2,000 per month from the CERB benefit, the federal response, they’ll get this one-time $1,000-dollar payment to add to that,” James tells NL Newsday.

“Some of them will be applying for the rent supplement that’s available. Students will be benefiting from deferring student loans until the fall. Businesses will have seen a cut to their property taxes. And then come July, people who get the climate-action credit, something that happens automatically based on your income, they’ll be seeing a top-up in July as well.”

“So the federal government put in supports for GST in April, we’re putting supports for our program in May. July there will be another support from the provincial government. So we’re really trying to make sure there aren’t holes there.”

James says the goal of this emergency benefit for B.C. workers is to build on gaps in federal programs.

People can start applying online as of today and can apply over the phone starting on Monday.

Details on how you can apply online can be found here.