Dear Members,
Today, the Ministers of Finance and Small Business, Export Promotion and International Trade provided new details about the Canada Recovery Hiring Program and announced an extension of the Highly Affected Sectors Credit Availability Program (HASCAP) to December 31, 2021.
This announcement comes as Governments shifts to reopen Canada’s economy and seeks to provide continued support for hard-hit businesses like hotels. With the extension of HASCAP, originally set to expire on June 30, 2021, the Ministers reiterated that this will ensure that businesses like hotels have the liquidity support they need to invest in their recovery.
The proposed measures are in line with HAC’s recent recommendation to provide continued support to struggling sectors.
The Hiring Program, announced in Budget 2021, is intended to help businesses that continue to experience a decline in revenue by covering some of the increased costs of hiring as they reopen and ramp up for the Summer. The program will provide a subsidy of up to 50 per cent of eligible salary or wages and it will be available retroactively to June 6, 2021. More information on how the Program will work, including eligibility, is available here.
Key details include:
- The Hiring Program will be available for active employees from June 6, 2021, to November 20, 2021. The legislation for the program has not passed into law yet, however, the program would provide the supports retroactively upon becoming law.
- To qualify, an employer must demonstrate a decline in revenues that would be sufficient to qualify for the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy (CEWS).
- Businesses would be able to access the program through the Canada Revenue Agency, as they did with CEWS.
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The Program is designed to interact with the Wage Subsidy. The programs overlap so that, as Wage Subsidy rates gradually decline, eligible employers would still be able to receive the maximum support from the Hiring Program this summer if they hire more workers or increase workers’ hours or wages.
While we welcome these announcements, we are acutely aware of the steep decline of the CEWS and CERS support programs and we are working hard to get further extensions in the Fall. We will sending more information soon on how you can get involved to support.
Sincerely,
