- Helping Businesses Keep their Workers To support businesses that are facing revenue losses and to help prevent lay-offs, the government is proposing to provide eligible small employers a temporary wage subsidy for a period of three months. The subsidy will be equal to 10% of remuneration paid during that period, up to a maximum subsidy of $1,375 per employee and $25,000 per employer. Businesses will be able to benefit immediately from this support by reducing their remittances of income tax withheld on their employees’ remuneration. Employers benefiting from this measure will include corporations eligible for the small business deduction, as well as nonprofit organizations and charities.
The way I interpret that, is that you get a subsidy of 10% of your employees wages. The way you get this is by reducing your payroll remittance to CRA (if your payroll is done through your payroll service bureau – should talk to them about how they are handling that). The maximum you can take is $1,375 per employee.
- Longer-Term Income Support for Workers For Canadians who lose their jobs or face reduced hours as a result of COVID’s impact, the Government is: • Introducing an Emergency Support Benefit delivered through the CRA to provide up to $5.0 billion in support to workers who are not eligible for EI and who are facing unemployment. • Implementing the EI Work Sharing Program, which provides EI benefits to workers who agree to reduce their normal working hour as a result of developments beyond the control of their employers, by extending the eligibility of such agreements to 76 weeks, easing eligibility requirements, and streamlining the application process. This was announced by the Prime Minister on March 11, 2020.
I understand through this that if you cannot keep everyone working, you can put in place an EI Work Sharing Program, where EI will top up your employees wages. Do not know any particulars yet about this program, but will try to find out more.
- Temporary Income Support for Workers and Parents For Canadians without paid sick leave (or similar workplace accommodation) who are sick, quarantined or forced to stay home to care for children, the Government is: • Waiving the one-week waiting period for those individuals in imposed quarantine that claim Employment Insurance (EI) sickness benefits. This temporary measure is in effect as of March 15, 2020. • Waiving the requirement to provide a medical certificate to access EI sickness benefits. • Introducing the Emergency Care Benefit providing up to $900 bi-weekly, for up to 15 weeks. This flat-payment Benefit would be administered through the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) and provide income support to: o Workers, including the self-employed, who are quarantined or sick with COVID19 but do not qualify for EI sickness benefits. o Workers, including the self-employed, who are taking care of a family member who is sick with COVID-19, such as an elderly parent, but do not quality for EI sickness benefits. o Parents with children who require care or supervision due to school closures, and are unable to earn employment income, irrespective of whether they qualify for EI or not. Application for the Benefit will be available in April 2020, and require Canadians to attest that they meet the eligibility requirements. They will need to re-attest every two weeks to reconfirm their eligibility. Canadians will select one of three channels to apply for the Benefit: 1. by accessing it on their CRA MyAccount secure portal; 2. by accessing it from their secure My Service Canada Account; or 3. by calling a toll free number equipped with an automated application process.
This provision will help those that are sick or in actual quarantine, or have sick family members, or have to stay home to care for their children. The laid off worker would apply for EI, which can be done online.
- Longer-Term Income Support for Workers For Canadians who lose their jobs or face reduced hours as a result of COVID’s impact, the Government is: • Introducing an Emergency Support Benefit delivered through the CRA to provide up to $5.0 billion in support to workers who are not eligible for EI and who are facing unemployment. • Implementing the EI Work Sharing Program, which provides EI benefits to workers who agree to reduce their normal working hour as a result of developments beyond the control of their employers, by extending the eligibility of such agreements to 76 weeks, easing eligibility requirements, and streamlining the application process. This was announced by the Prime Minister on March 11, 2020.
Not sure at this point how this is rolled out, but will let you know as things develop.
For those workers laid off, regulations are developing as things progress. For those laid off, when preparing ROE’s, you should use code A. For those in work sharing, you should use code H. Alberta has waived the one week waiting period.
