Dear Readers,
Today the Government of Canada announced plans to expand the eligibility requirements for the 75 per cent Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy after hearing feedback from Canada’s entrepreneurs and innovators that the original measurement test of a 30 per cent revenue decline YoY was too prescriptive for non-static SMEs, especially high-growth companies in Canada’s technology sector.
An upcoming piece of legislation includes new criteria. Companies will still need to demonstrate a decline in revenue, but companies are now allowed to: compare their revenue of March, April and May 2020 to that of the same month of 2019, or to an average of their revenue earned in January and February; demonstrate only a 15 per cent gross revenue decline in March, 30 per cent for April and May will remain; and choose between cash and accrual accounting to measure the revenue decline. Additionally, the Government is proposing that employers eligible for the CEWS be entitled to receive a 100 per cent refund for certain employer-paid contributions to Employment Insurance, the Canada Pension Plan, the Quebec Pension Plan, and the Quebec Parental Insurance Plan. This refund would apply to the entire amount of employer-paid contributions in respect of remuneration paid to furloughed employees in a period where the employer is eligible for the CEWS.
Based on these new parameters, the Council of Canadian Innovators (CCI) is soliciting feedback from Canada’s SME community on whether these changes will help more companies become eligible for the wage subsidy. We are asking you to fill out this brief survey tonight. You can find it online at https://bit.ly/SMEWageSubsidy2. The information CCI collects will be anonymized and will be shared with the Government of Canada and members of the media. If you provide any contact information in this form, please note this will no longer make the information you provide anonymous to CCI. If you would like to receive future updates from CCI or get in touch with us, please email [email protected].
Please complete this survey as soon as possible.
Thank you and stay well,
Ben Bergen, Executive Director for Council of Canadian Innovators
