Parliament is set to be recalled for another emergency sitting, to consider a multibillion-dollar expansion to COVID-19 financial assistance measures, as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau restates the reality that Canada could be in for a months-long fight against the virus.
Trudeau called the expansion to the wage subsidy unveiled on Monday the largest economic program in Canadian history, and that’s why he thinks Parliament should be reconvened to approve it, though the recall is also needed because it exceeds what was included in the legislation passed just last week.
Speaking to the measures being taken both by federal and provincial governments, Trudeau said that: “Canada hasn’t seen this type of civic mobilization since the Second World War. These are the biggest economic measures in our lifetimes, to defeat a threat to our health.”
“These historic measures will support Canadians to stay home to defeat COVID-19, but the government alone cannot win this fight.”
Aimed at helping keep employees on staff, the emergency wage subsidy is being back-dated to March 15 and will be on the first $58,700 earned, meaning up to $847 a week per employee.
Trudeau emphasized that businesses will need to show they are doing “everything they can” to pay the remaining 25 per cent of their employee’s wages, or face serious penalties.
Updating Canadians on the federal government’s response plan to the pandemic, Trudeau confirmed that starting April 6, Canadians can apply for the Canada Emergency Response Benefit and get their money within 10 days or faster if they apply for direct deposit. But if they are set to get the new 75 per cent wage subsidy, they cannot collect both.
“It’s one or the other,” Trudeau said.
This benefit comes as more than 2.1 million Canadians have applied for employment insurance within the last two weeks, with less than half of those processed at this point and more coming in daily.