By Kathleen Harris The federal government is extending the Canada emergency response benefit (CERB) by one more month and revamping the employment insurance program to allow more people to receive financial assistance during COVID-19. The suite of benefit reforms, aimed at helping Canadians through the transition as the economy gradually reopens, is expected to cost [...]

By the Ministry of the Solicitor General TORONTO — The Ontario government, in consultation with the Chief Medical Officer of Health, is extending orders currently in force under the Reopening Ontario (A Flexible Response to COVID-19) Act, 2020 (ROA). The extensions provide the government with the necessary flexibility to address the ongoing risks and effects [...]

By Rachel Aiello OTTAWA -- The first application period for the recently-broadened Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy program opens in a week, and the Canada Revenue Agency is encouraging employers to use their reworked online calculator to determine how much financial aid they’ll be eligible for going forward. The program started as a 75 per cent [...]

By the Canadian Press Staff OTTAWA -- The federal government has temporarily set a minimum unemployment rate of 13.1 per cent to calculate employment insurance benefits during the COVID-19 pandemic. Those people living in regions with an unemployment rate lower than that threshold will have their EI benefits calculated at that rate. In regions with [...]

By CBC News The federal government has extended Canada Emergency Commercial Rent Assistance (CECRA), its rent subsidy program to support small businesses, by another month. CBC News first reported the decision on Friday morning before the government confirmed the move in a press release later in the day. Under the original rent program known as [...]

By the Canadian Press The federal government plans to move out-of-work Canadians into the employment insurance system when a key emergency benefit runs out in the fall, and provide an EI-like support for millions who can't qualify under existing rules. The change signals a potentially sweeping overhaul to the decades-old social safety net criticized in [...]

By the Office of the Premier TORONTO — Additional businesses and public spaces will be reopening as the Ontario government allows the City of Toronto and Peel Region to move into Stage 3 of reopening the province on Friday, July 31 at 12:01 a.m. This decision was made in consultation with the Chief Medical Officer [...]

By Elizabeth Thompson Hundreds of thousands of Canadians could be eligible for a lucrative tax deduction as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. But just how many get to claim that deduction could depend on their employers, and on how the Canada Revenue Agency deals with a series of questions raised by the sudden changes [...]

By Ryan Patrick Jones & David Cochrane Finance Minister Bill Morneau is proposing sweeping changes to the federal pandemic wage subsidy that would extend the program until the end of the year and open it up to more businesses. The changes to the subsidy would do away with the requirement that businesses prove a 30 [...]

By Ryan Patrick Jones Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said today the federal government is extending the emergency wage subsidy program to December of this year. The program covers 75 per cent of wages, up to a weekly maximum of $847, for workers at eligible companies and non-profits affected by the economic slowdown caused by the [...]