Federal Announcement April 8 re: COVID-19
Tri-Cities Chamber of Commerce provide the following summarized information:
NEW – Canada Summer Jobs Program temporary changes:
Subsidy: an increase to the wage subsidy, so that private and public sector employers can also receive up to 100 per cent of the provincial or territorial minimum hourly wage for each employee
Date: an extension to the end date for employment to February 28, 2021
Scope of work: allowing employers to adapt their projects and job activities to support essential services
Hours: allowing employers to hire staff on a part-time basis
UPDATE – Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy
Eligibility: Businesses are eligible if they drop 15% in revenue in March instead of a 30% drop. The eligibility threshold for April and May will remain a 30% decline in revenues. Employers will have to apply for each month and attest to the drop each month.
Benchmarks: Compare revenues to the revenues from last year. For those businesses for which a year-over-year comparison is not possible or would disqualify them, they will now have the option of comparing March/April/May revenues with their revenues from January and February 2020.
Revenue Calculation: Revenue will be calculated through the accrual or cash method.
Charities and Non-Profits: Can include or exclude government funding when calculating loss in revenue (whichever way works best for them when calculating their revenue comparisons and determining eligibility).
Re-hiring: In order to make it more cost effective for employers to rehire workers, the Government is proposing to refund employer contributions to Employment Insurance and the Canada Pension Plan.
Penalties: Applicants will have to designate someone with control over their finances to make sure the claims are appropriate. Any business that receives the benefit and is be deemed ineligible will have to repay the full amount. Anyone caught abusing the program will face penalties up to 225% of what they received and up to 5 years in prison.