Photo: Canadian Press

By Canadian Press

Government expands aid to workers & businesses hit by Omicron restrictions

Dec 22, 2021 | 11:35 AM

Canada’s federal government offered a lifeline to businesses struggling during the COVID-19 pandemic by expanding eligibility for two benefit programs.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and several members of his cabinet announced Wednesday that the increasingly widespread Omicron variant and spiking COVID-19 cases pushed the government to change eligibility requirements for its Local Lockdown Program and Canada Worker Lockdown Benefit.

The Local Lockdown Program will now offer wage and rent subsidies ranging between 25 and 75 per cent to employers subject to capacity-limiting restrictions of 50 per cent or more and the government will reduce the current-month revenue decline threshold requirement to 25 per cent.

It will also expand the Canada Worker Lockdown Benefit, which provides $300 weekly to workers who have lost at least 50 per cent of their income because of lockdowns, to include workers in regions where provincial or territorial governments have introduced capacity-limiting restrictions of 50 per cent or more.

Up until now, these programs required recipients to be in regions where businesses were ordered shut and workers were instructed to stay home.

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Wednesday’s announcement loosens that requirement to include companies in areas where restrictions that fall short of a full lockdown have been issued.

The government said the new eligibility requirements are retroactive to Dec. 19 and will last until Feb. 12, when the eligibility will revert back to the requirements previously in effect.

Any public companies that accept the subsidies and increase executive compensation or pay out dividends will have the benefits clawed back, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland said.

Wednesday’s announcement came after business owners spent the last week calling for more government help for companies contending with temporary closures, capacity limits and the growing number of Canadians eschewing in-person shopping, dining and other activities.

Cristina Junca welcomed the new round of government aid because she fears capacity measures or other restrictions will be levied in Calgary, where she operates Crafted, a store selling handmade works from emerging Canadian artisans.

“We don’t know what will happen, but my husband and I are preparing for that,” she said.

“We have saved money, but if (restrictions happen), we need to cut employee hours.”

Workers have already approached Junca asking if they’ll still be collecting a paycheck or asked to come in, if lockdowns are issued. Many are students, who really need the money, she said.

Knowing that government relief will be there if the worst comes is a relief for Junca, who is already seeing the Omicron variant impact business.

“Now, we have less people, we have less sales and we have less work,” she said.

“It’s a struggle for us.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 22, 2021.

Tara Deschamps, The Canadian Press