The plaintiff was injured in a motor vehicle accident and awarded $129,000 in damages by a jury, including $100,000 for past income loss.
The parties brought a motion to determine whether Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) and Canada Recovery Benefit (CRB) payments received by the plaintiff were deductible from the income loss award under s. 267.8(1)2 of the Insurance Act.
The court held that the benefits were intended as income replacement and were received 'in respect of the incident' because the plaintiff claimed his inability to work was entirely due to the accident, not COVID-19.
Consequently, the total amount of CERB and CRB received is deductible from the jury's award for past income loss.
