Hello,
I am a sponsor in the same boat as OP. My wife immigrated here and has received her PR 2.5 years ago under a spousal sponsorship application. She has worked most of 2018 and most of 2019. She was a contractual worker. Her last contract was in September and she had to terminate it prematurely for personal reasons (it would have only lasted until December regardless). Her income was in excess of 5000 in both 2018 and 2019. She currently is unemployed and has been unable to secure employment.
Myself, 1.5 years into taking my undertaking have developed a serious medical condition that places me in a high-risk group. I am working from home for the foreseeable future. As such, the feasibility of her 'just working at a grocery store' is understandably unsafe for me. Between my wage and some good financial planning before all of this happened, we can subsist on one income for a time however our hit to our savings is quite significant if this draws out for months and months. I am personally concerned about being compelled to choose between our savings decreasing significantly while the job market is dry or to ask my wife to work in a position that may put both of us at risk. She has been applying for 'remote' work for some time now but no one seems to be hiring at all.
Trudeau announced today the CERB applies to people making "$1000 or less" but specifically did not mention whether being unemployed at all fell under this conditional statement. Not being a contract worker, nor ever using EI before myself, I am unfamiliar with the nuance of being a contract worker and being 'unemployed' between jobs when it comes to EI or EI-related claims (which I have assumed the CERB to be). If my wife is eligible--and I do understand eligibility does seem to be changing week to week--this post seems to suggest that this would not be clawed back from myself. Like others, I am reticent to take that at its face due to the financial repercussions of the information being inaccurate.
I'd like to reiterate a question posted by someone else in this thread asking if anyone is aware of an official statement that can be referenced at a later date that excludes sponsors from repaying the CERB back for a sponsored spouse? It would be helpful to have something officially documented to give me peace of mind come tax time 2021 should this be an issue in the future.
Thank you all!