COVID-19 Support Program Updates

The Government is proposing to continue COVID-19 business support programs until May 7, 2022 for organizations that are the most affected by public health restrictions. However, the programs we have become the most familiar with over the past several months, the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy (CEWS) and the Canada Emergency Rent Subsidy (CERS), came to an end for most businesses on October 23, 2021.

The deadlines for filing claims for past periods under these programs can be found here.

The main changes that the Government has proposed to the support programs are as follows:

  • Extend the Canada Recovery Hiring Program (CRHP) until May 7, 2022 for eligible employers. For more information on this program and how it compares to the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy (CEWS) please click here.
  • Delivery of targeted support to those sectors which seem to have been hit the hardest by implementing the Tourism and Hospitality Recovery Program and the Hardest-Hit Business Recovery Program.

Tourism and Hospitality Recovery Program

  • This program is set to provide support through continued operation of the wage and rent subsidy programs to hotels, tour operators, travel agencies and restaurants with a subsidy rate of up to 75%.

Hardest-Hit Business Recovery Program

  • This program is also set to provide support through continued operation of the wage and rent subsidy programs with a subsidy rate up to 50%. Eligible businesses will use a “two-key” system where they will need to demonstrate significant revenue losses over the course of 12 months of the pandemic as well as losses in the current month.

For more information on these changes and support programs please click here.

Personal programs

The government also proposed the following changes to worker support programs:

Extend the Canada Recovery Caregiving Benefit and the Canada Recovery Sickness Benefit until May 7, 2022 and increase the maximum duration of benefits by 2 weeks. For more information on these and other programs please click here.

Introduce the Canada Worker Lockdown Benefit which would provide $300 a week in income support to eligible workers should they be unable to work due to a local lockdown anytime between October 24, 2021 and May 7, 2022. For more information on this announcement please click here.

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