The federal government announced that the current rate structures for the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy (CEWS) from March 14 to June 5, 2021 will remain unchanged through June.
For CEWS, that means using a pre-pandemic 2019 reference month as the baseline for the calculation of the subsidy for the remaining periods of the program, according to Oumar Dicko, Chief Economist at CADA.
“We’ve had a number of conversations with the Minister of Finance, the Minister of Small Business around the need to use 2019 as the baseline for the calculation of the wage subsidy going forward, to allow businesses to continue receiving this much needed support in the next couple of months,” said Dicko in an interview with Canadian auto dealer.
Chrystia Freeland, Canada’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, announced the intention by the federal government to use the current rate structure on March 3, for claim periods 14 and 16.
“With variants in Canada and many regions still under lockdown, we are giving workers and businesses the certainty they need that strong government support will be there to get them through this crisis and ensure they come out strong,” said Freeland in a government news release.
As a reminder, the maximum wage subsidy rate for active employees remains at 75 per cent (40 per cent for the base rate, plus 35 per cent top-up) — the same as periods 11 to 13.
You can find more details about the wage subsidy calculation here.
