OTTAWA — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is resuming his daily COVID-19 updates Monday, where he’s expected to focus on the launch of the federal government’s major wage subsidy program.
Starting today businesses can apply for the 75 per cent wage subsidy, a program Trudeau has expanded the scope of, and eligibility for a handful of times since first promising it last month.
The wage subsidy program passed Parliament on April 11, and will provide up to $847 a week per employee for 12 weeks, retroactive to March 15, for companies big and small as well as charities.
Last week a calculator was launched on the Canada Revenue Agency website so businesses could determine in advance how much they’d be able to claim. The CRA is planning to batch process the first week’s applications at the end of the week with money starting to roll out early May.
Trudeau has called the $73 billion wage subsidy the largest economic program in Canadian history, and it’s expected “hundreds of thousands” of applications will be made for businesses to keep employees on staff as they await the reopening of the economy.
On that front, both Ontario and Quebec are expected to release initial economic and societal reopening plans, though these provinces continue to have the highest number of COVID-19 cases and have called in the military to help handle the numerous outbreaks in long-term care homes.
As the prime minister said on Saturday, the national guidelines that are being developed with the provinces around reopening will have to factor in the still-developing understanding around immunity to the virus.
“The focus we have is on continuing to prevent spread through social distancing measures, through PPE in workplaces, through various measures of protecting Canadians as we move forward,” he said.
As of Monday morning there are 46,895 confirmed COVID-19 cases in Canada and 2,560 deaths.
