Prime Minister Justin Trudeau reeled out more details on the government’s 75 per cent wage subsidy for Canadians during the COVID-19 crisis.
Trudeau announced this morning (March 30) that the number of workers a business employs doesn’t matter, as long as it can show a revenue decrease of at least 30 per cent since the pandemic was declared.
Previously, it was thought the government’s aid package applied only to small to medium businesses.
Trudeau added that the government will pay 75 per cent of an employee’s wage up to $58,700, equivalent to $847 per week.
The subsidy, said the prime minister, would be backdated to March 15, as previously announced.
“I want to offer a word of caution to businesses: we are trusting you to do the right thing. If you have the means to pay the remaining 25 per cent that’s not covered by the subsidy, please do so. And if you think this is a system you can take advantage of or game — don’t,” he said.
“There will be serious consequences for those who do.”
The prime minister said the wage subsidy program requires trust and good faith from all parties involved, and that a verification system will be developed in the coming weeks.
Government is still developing background documents explaining the technical details of the program.
The prime minister could not offer an estimate on the cost of the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy program, but instead said Finance Minister Bill Morneau would offer more details of the total cost on Tuesday.
Non-profits and charities are also eligible for the program.
The federal government announced Friday it was boosting the wage subsidy up to 75 per cent after originally unveiling a three-month, 10 per cent subsidy March 18.
Ken Peacock, chief economist of the Business Council of B.C., told Glacier Media the big boost will have the intended impact of retaining far more workers than what was previously on the table.
“I still think we’re going to see a nasty recession but the wage subsidies announced by the government do help mitigate a more dire economic outlook,” he said after the revisions were announced Friday.
“B.C. will leverage federal government packages to a greater extent in proportional terms than many other provinces just because of our orientation towards more small and medium-sized businesses.”
The revised wage subsidies will be backdated to March 15.
The federal government also introduced on Friday the $25 billion Canada Emergency Business Account, which allows banks to offer $40,000 loans guaranteed by government to eligible businesses that will come interest-free for the first year.
Under certain conditions, up to $10,000 of the loan will be forgivable.
Export Development Canada and the Business Development Bank of Canada will be receiving $12.5 billion in additional funding to help small businesses with cash flow, while the federal government said it’s deferring GST and HST payments as well as duties and taxes owed on imports until June 30.
The federal government said it would be the equivalent to $30 billion in interest-free loans for businesses.
Meanwhile, B.C. Health Minister Adrian Dix and provincial health officer Bonnie Henry will provide an update Monday on COVID-19’s spread throughout the province.
On Saturday the provincial government revealed B.C. had 92 confirmed new cases of COVID-19 for a total of 884.
There has been one new death, bringing the total to 17, and one additional long-term health-care facility has had an infection.
That's 12 long-term care homes now that have had at least one infection of either a resident or staff member.
As of Saturday, 81 patients with COVID-19 are in hospital and 52 in intensive care.
Henry said the spike since Friday is not unexpected and is partly a reflection of increased testing.
B.C. has been doing more than 3,000 tests per day.
- with files from Tyler Orton and Nelson Bennett, Business In Vancouver
