This blog was originally published on March 20, 2020.

COVID-19 (aka Coronavirus) has had an immediate and drastic effect on the Canadian economy. A number of provinces have shut down schools and declared a State of Emergency or a State of Public Health Emergency, which provides the government with extraordinary powers to make orders affecting the public, including those which suspend rights of individuals and businesses.

Many provincial governments have ordered the closure of all bars, nightclubs, and private entertainment facilities, including gyms, swimming pools, casinos, and bingo halls. These measures have significant financial impacts on businesses and organizations across Western Canada.

We have compiled the following summary of the federal resources and financial assistance that is presently available, which you may wish to consider as you prepare to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on your organization.

You can also find additional resources specific to the four western provinces at the following links:

Federal Resources

A federal economic aid package worth $82 billion was unveiled on March 18, 2020 to help Canadian workers and businesses weather the COVID-19 storm. Additional information about the measures that are included can be found below. Information about the entire aid package can be found via the Department of Finance news release.

Further resources and programs have been announced throughout April and May are set out below.

The following resources are available to businesses across Canada:

  • Large Employer Emergency Financing Facility ("LEEFF") was announced on May 11, 2020. Eligible applicants include companies with significant operations or workforce in Canada, and annual revenues of $300 million or higher. The full news release can be found here.
  • Canada Emergency Commercial Rent Assistance ("CECRA") was announced on April 24, 2020, and an update was announced on May 20, 2020 which expanded the program to small businesses. CECRA will provide forgivable loans to qualifying commercial property owners, whether they have a mortgage on their property or not. The loans will cover 50 per cent of three monthly rent payments that are payable by eligible small business tenants who are experiencing financial hardship during April, May, and June. The loans will be forgiven if the qualifying property owner agrees to reduce the small business tenants' rent by at least 75 per cent under a rent reduction agreement, which will include a term not to evict the tenant while the agreement is in place. The small business tenant would cover the remainder, up to 25 per cent of the rent. Impacted small business tenants are businesses that are paying less than $50,000 per month in gross rent in a given location, with annual revenues of less than $20 million (at the ultimate parent level), and who have experienced at least a 70 per cent drop in pre-COVID-19 revenues. You can read more about the CECRA program here. Applications for the program open May 25, 2020.
  • Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy: On April 11, 2020, Bill C-14, A second Act respecting certain measures in response to COVID-19, was passed by Parliament, setting out the rules for the new Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy. On May 8, 2020, the Federal Government announced that the Emergency Wage Subsidy would be extended past June. More information on eligible employers and how eligibility is determined can be found here.
  • Changes to Work Restrictions for International Students: on April 22, 2020, the Federal Government announced that it would be relaxing work restrictions on international students working in an essential service or function. More information can be found here.
  • Changes to the Temporary Foreign Worker Program for the Agriculture Industry: Modifications have now been made to the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (the "TFWP") and various travel restrictions to better allow access to foreign workers. More information can be found here.
  • Support for Canadian Journalism: on April 17, 2020, the Federal Government clarified its plan for providing support for Canadian Journalism. Changes include the establishment of an advisory board to assist the government in administering tax measures directed toward the journalism sector, and expansion of eligibility for the Canadian journalism labour tax credit, among other things. More information can be found here.
  • Relief for Federally Regulated Pension Plan Sponsors: on April 15, 2020, the Federal Government announced that it would provide relief to sponsors of federally regulated, defined benefit pension plans. This relief will be in the form of a moratorium, through the remainder of 2020, on solvency payment requirements for defined benefit plans. More information can be found here.
  • Canada's Plan to Mobilize Industry was announced by the Federal Government on March 20, 2020. The plan will redirect many streams of government funding to fighting the pandemic. Canadian manufacturers or businesses with equipment or facilities that can be rapidly re-tooled to meet medical needs can respond through a portal on the Government's website.
  • Business Credit Availability Program (BCAP) will allow the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC) and Export Development Canada (EDC) to provide more than $65 billion of additional support, largely targeted to small and medium-sized businesses. BDC and EDC are co-operating with private sector lenders to co-ordinate on credit solutions for individual businesses, including in sectors such as oil and gas, air transportation and tourism. The program includes:
    • Canada Emergency Business Account (CEBA): the CEBA provides zero-interest, partially forgivable loans up to $40,000 to small businesses that have experienced diminished revenues due to COVID-19, but face ongoing non-deferrable costs such as rent, utilities, insurance, taxes, and employment costs. Twenty-five per cent of this loan is forgivable if repaid by December 31, 2022. The CEBA was initially designed to allow for rapid deployment of credit to businesses with 2019 payroll between $50,000 and $1 million, but on May 20, 2020 the government expanded the eligibility parameters of the program, by increasing the payroll eligibility range to between $20,000 and $1.5 million.
    • Apply through your financial institution today.
  • Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SME) Loan and Guarantee Program:
    • EDC is working with financial institutions to co-lend term loans to businesses for operating cash flow. Eligible businesses may obtain incremental credit amounts of up to $6.5 million, 80% of which would be provided by BDC. issue new operating credit and cash flow term loans of up to $6.25 million to SMEs.
    • EDC will also provide funding to financial institutions so that they can issue new operating credit and cash flow term loans of up to $6.25 million to small and medium-sized businesses. These loans will be 80 per cent guaranteed by EDC, to be repaid within one year.
    • Eligible companies could obtain up to $12.5 million through these two lending streams.
    • Apply through your financial institution in the coming weeks.
  • Mid-Market Financing Program: On May 11, 2020, the Federal Government announced it would be expanding the BCAP to mid-size companies whose credit needs are greater than what is currently available. The Mid-Market Financing Program will provide commercial loans of between $12.5 million to $60 million to qualifying companies with annual revenues of more than $100 million. More information will be available through BDC in the coming weeks.
  • Export Development Canada (EDC): EDC provides insurance and financial services, bonding products and small business solutions to Canadian exporters and investors and their international buyers.
  • Business Development Canada (BDC): Learn more about additional financing through BDC, including small business loans, working capital loans and purchase order financing. BDC also has free template business continuity plans and templates for entrepreneurs to use to help mitigate the impacts of COVID-19. For more information and to view available plans, see BDC's Business Continuity Guide.
  • Farm Credit Canada: The near-term credit available to farmers and the agri-food sector will also be increased through Farm Credit Canada due to an additional $5 billion in funding from the Federal Government. Learn more about applying for financing through FCC.
  • Bank of Canada: The Bank of Canada is announcing its intention to launch the Bankers' Acceptance Purchase Facility (BAPF). The Bankers' Acceptance market is one of Canada's core funding markets and a key source of financing for small and medium-size corporate borrowers. Starting the week of March 23, the Bank will conduct secondary market purchases of one-month Bankers' Acceptances issued and guaranteed by any Canadian bank and of sufficiently high quality, broadly equivalent to a minimum short-term credit rating of R-1 (low). Additional details to follow.
  • Flexibility for Taxpayers: Several measures have been implemented by the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) to assist taxpayers. Most of these measures are applicable to individuals only, but the following measures are applicable to businesses as well:
    • the due date for any payments owed to the CRA by all taxpayers is deferred to August 31, 2020, with no interest or penalties;
    • the CRA will not contact any small or medium businesses to initiate any post-assessment GST/HST or Income Tax audits for the next four weeks;
    • effective immediately the CRA will recognize electronic signatures as having met the signature requirements of the Income Tax Act, as a temporary administrative measure; and
    • the Liaison Officer service offers help to owners of small businesses to understand their tax obligations. Traditionally available in-person, this service is now available over the phone.
    • for more information, read our Federal Government Grants Tax Relief Resulting From COVID-19 blog.
    • You can also read more about the response by the CRA and the Tax Court of Canada here.
  • Work-Sharing Program: The Work-Sharing Program is implementing temporary special measures to support employers and employees affected by the downturn in business caused by COVID-19. The maximum duration of the Work-Sharing program has been extended from 38 weeks to 76 weeks.
  • Air Transportation Sector Lease Waiver: the federal government is also waiving ground lease rents from March 2020 through to December 2020 for the 21 airport authorities that pay rent to the federal government.
  • Financial Relief programs being offered by lenders:
    • Bank of Montreal, CIBC, TD Canada, National Bank of Canada, RBC Royal Bank and Scotiabank have announced new plans which will help those effected by the financial consequences of COVID-19. Each of the 6 banks have announced that they will be allowing the deferral of mortgage payments for up to six months. Details on the specific plans of each of the banks can be found below.
    • BMO
    • CIBC
    • TD Canada
    • National Bank of Canada
    • RBC
    • Scotiabank
    • Servus Credit Union
    • Manulife
  • The following resources are also available to individuals:
    • Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB): announced on March 25, 2020, the Canada Emergency Response Benefit replaces the previously announced Emergency Care Benefit and the Emergency Support Benefit. The CERB is a taxable government payment meant to help those grappling with job loss or other circumstances that have resulted is sudden loss of income due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It offers $2,000 per month for up to four months.
    • Employment Insurance Sickness Benefit: For Canadians without paid sick leave (or similar workplace accommodation) who are sick, quarantined or forced to stay home to care for children, the one-week waiting period for Employment Insurance (EI) sickness benefits is waived for those individuals in imposed quarantine that claim, and the requirement to provide a medical certificate to access EI sickness benefits is also waived. Learn more about the benefits.
    • Flexibility for Taxpayers: in addition to the measures listed above, which are available to businesses and individuals, the due date for 2019 tax returns for individuals is deferred to June 1, 2020 (effective immediately).
    • GST Credit: the Federal Government is proposing to provide a one-time special payment by early May 2020 through the Goods and Services Tax credit (GSTC). This will double the maximum annual GSTC payment amounts for the 2019-2020 benefit year. The average boost to income for those benefitting from this measure will be close to $400 for single individuals and close to $600 for couples (effective May, subject to Royal Assent).
    • Child Tax Benefit Top Up: the Federal Government is proposing to increase the maximum annual Canada Child Benefit (CCB) payment amounts, only for the 2019-2020 benefit year, by $300 per child. The overall increase for families receiving CCB will be approximately $550 on average; these families will receive an extra $300 per child as part of their May payment (effective May, subject to Royal Assent).
    • Deferral of Student Loan Payments: the government is proposing placing a six-month interest-free moratorium on the repayment of Canada Student Loans for all individuals currently in the process of repaying these loans (effective early April, subject to Royal Assent).

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.