WAGE SUBSIDY EXTENDED TO AUGUST

New categories added to help meet payroll

OTTAWA • The National Ballet School, Hockey Canada and tax-exempt Indigenous corporations. Those are just a few of the organizations that are newly eligible for the federal wage subsidy program, which has also been extended by three months.

“Canadians in every sector have faced challenges,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said during a press conference on Friday morning. “Far too many Canadians have lost their jobs during the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Thus, he announced that the end of the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy (CEWS) would be pushed back to Aug. 29 from June 6. Furthermore, the eligibility criteria would be loosened to allow five new categories of employers:

❚ Partnerships that are up to 50 per cent owned by non-eligible members (such as a Crown corporation);

❚ Indigenous government-owned corporations that operate as a business;

❚ Registered amateur athletic associations;

❚ Registered journalism organizations;

❚ Private colleges and schools.

Announced nearly two months ago, the CEWS covers 75 per cent of eligible employers’ payrolls — up to a weekly maximum of $847 per employee — for up to 12 weeks starting March 15.

But since then, a host of organizations in various sectors have expressed frustration about being excluded from the program due to various “technicalities”.

For example, the National Post detailed two weeks ago how all private schools — no matter if they received public funds or not — were excluded from CEWS because legislation considered all schools to be “public institutions”. That even included arts schools like Canada’s

National Ballet School.

“(Business owners) you have some runway to catch your breath as you get restarted. So please bring back your employees. Going forward, we need to make sure that this program keeps working for people. That it keeps encouraging employers to rehire staff and even expand where possible,” Trudeau pleaded.

“While much remains unknown, there’s one thing that I do know, workers drive our economy and making sure that they have jobs to go back to. We’re making sure that Canada stands ready to recover,” Finance Minister Bill Morneau said.

Morneau also opened the door to reducing the 30 per cent minimum gross revenue loss to be eligible for CEWS, but said that decision would require consultation with various industries first.

The finance minister said he believes these measures will push more employers to apply for CEWS.

Nearly three weeks after the program’s launch, it has been far less popular than the government expected, having dolled out only $3.38 billion of a planned $75 billion and receiving less than 200,000 applicants instead of an expected one million.

On the other hand, the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB), which pays out a monthly $2,000 for up to four months to those who lost their job because of the COVID-19 pandemic, has seen nearly double (eight million) the number of expected recipients.

“The idea was the emergency response benefits had to grow first, because we have 5.7 million out of the 19 million workers in Canada not actually attached to employers. So we wanted to make sure we supported those individuals,” Morneau explained.

“But the wage subsidy we see as critically important for businesses to retain the relationship with employees,” the finance minister continued. “The program started on April 27 and employers have been signing up at a rapid pace. So you will see more funding through that program come as that as that is rolled out to more employers.”

The federal government also announced $450 million in funding to help research institutions stay open and keep their employees.

“Because of the pandemic, many labs have closed or are at risk of imminently closing,” Trudeau said. He said the money would come through federal grant programs and would act as a wage subsidy similar to CEWS.

The money would also be used to subsidize up to 75 per cent of costs for “essential research-related activities” during the crisis.

With the tax-filing deadline coming up quickly (June 1), Trudeau also promised that no Canadian’s benefits would be cut off if they don’t file to the Canada Revenue Agency by then.

Instead, Canada child benefit (CCB), HST and GST credits would continue being paid out until September for those who still haven’t filed by the end of this month.