Backgrounder
In the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, the government acted swiftly to provide support to protect Canadians and support people and businesses, adapting its response as the pandemic evolved. The government's broad suite of support measures has helped families, protected jobs, and supported businesses across Canada. More than eight of every ten dollars spent to fight COVID-19 and support Canadians continues to come from the federal government.
This has, in many ways, been a two-speed recession. There have been businesses that have managed to adapt to the pandemic and to prosper. But others have been shut down outright by necessary public health restrictions or deeply limited in what they can do-and many of these highly affected businesses have been our small businesses. We need them to get back on their feet. They are the backbone of our economy, our main streets, and our communities.
Budget 2021 is a plan to make targeted investments in Canada's businesses so they can hire and train Canada's workers, who will then have more money to spend, spurring our recovery and growing an economy with more opportunities for everyone. It is a plan to help our businesses, especially small businesses, adopt new technologies. Restoring permanent and long-term economic growth means that we must help our businesses to come back stronger than ever before.
Extension of Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy and the Canada Emergency Rent Subsidy and Lockdown Support Beyond June 2021
The Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy has helped more than 5.3 million Canadians keep their jobs, and the Canada Emergency Rent Subsidy and Lockdown Support have helped more than 154,000 organizations with rent, mortgage, and other expenses. The wage subsidy, the rent subsidy, and Lockdown Support programs are currently set to expire in June 2021. In order to bridge Canadians through the rest of this crisis to recovery, continued support is needed. To give workers and employers certainty and stability over the coming months:
- Budget 2021 proposes to extend the wage subsidy, the rent subsidy, and Lockdown Support until September 25, 2021. It also proposes to gradually decrease the rates for the wage subsidy and rent subsidy, beginning July 4, 2021, in order to ensure an orderly phase-out of the programs as vaccinations are completed and the economy reopens.
Extending this support will mean that millions of jobs will continue to be protected.
