RENFREW COUNTY — The Council of Canadian Innovators (CCI) released the findings from its CEO Survey on Wage Subsidy Eligibility, which was conducted from April 1 to 4. This followed the release of the eligibility criteria for the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy (CEWS) on Wednesday, April 1. CCI received over 800 responses from SME leaders, and 651 responses from technology CEOs.
Some of the highlights from the survey include that of 651 technology CEOs surveyed, 609 CEOs, or 94 per cent, said that their companies would be ineligible for the CEWS because of the revenue test. Only 42 CEOs, or six per cent, said that they would be able to measure a reduction in business activity by revenue YoY; most tech CEOs said they do not measure a decrease in business activity by revenue loss and instead track key quantifiable business activities such as billable hours and receivables, units shipped, gross bookings, net new subscribers, monthly recurring revenue or subscriber churn; based off of the findings of CCI’s surveys, CCI estimates that around 39,000 Canadian ICT companies are ineligible for the CEWS because of how they evaluate a reduction in business activity; 40 per cent of Canadian tech CEOs surveyed have already laid off employees since the beginning of the pandemic; and 82 per cent of Canadian tech CEOs are planning layoffs for the coming weeks.
The full findings from the survey were shared with Finance Canada and ISED Canada.
