441-00029 (Business and trade)

The Government understands the petitioners request for a bipartisan equal membership committee to develop a small business action plan. Since the pandemic arose, the Government has been hard at work, in Alberta and around the country, to not only deliver vaccines for every eligible Canadian but also address the needs of small businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond. The Government rolled out numerous programs at the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis to prevent economic scarring and help workers and employers get through the pandemic.

As Canada is entering a new phase, the Government has recovered lost jobs, increased vaccination rates and reopened our borders. Government programs have protected millions of jobs and helped hundreds of thousands of Canadian businesses keep going, but they were always meant to be temporary, as such some of our programs have been extended and some have ended. This response includes recent initiatives such as the Canada Recovery Hiring Program, the Canada Recovery Sickness Benefit, extending the Canada Recovery Caregiving Benefit until May 2022, and extending the loan forgiveness repayment deadline for the Canada Emergency Business Account to the end of December 2023, to ensure that affected businesses and workers will continue to have the support they need to get through the pandemic.

The Tourism and Hospitality Recovery Program (THRP) targets tourism and hospitality industries that have been affected by the pandemic and are still struggling. This program started on October 24, 2021, and will end on May 7, 2022. The THRP will provide rent and wage subsidies with a maximum rate of 75% for both and the rates will be reduced by half starting March 13, 2022, until the end of the Program in May 2022. Eligible businesses will have to demonstrate an average monthly revenue reduction of at least 40% between March 2020 and February 2021, and a current-month revenue loss of at least 40%. 

The Hardest-Hit Business Recovery Program (HHBRP) is a program that will provide support to businesses that are not eligible for the THRP and have been facing hardships due to the pandemic. Eligible businesses have to have an average monthly revenue reduction of at least 50% between March 2020 and February 2021, and a current-month revenue loss of at least 50%.

To better support individual workers in the face of the new Omicron variant, the federal government expanded the definition of a public health lockdown for the purposes of the Canada Worker Lockdown Benefit. The Canada Worker Lockdown Benefit is a program that replaces the Canadian Recovery Benefit and provides income support to those workers in regions where provincial or territorial governments have introduced capacity-limiting restrictions of 50 per cent or more. This program will run until February 12, 2022. The benefit will provide $300 a week for the duration of the lockdown, and be available to workers irrespective of their Employment Insurance (EI) eligibility (although EI benefits cannot be paid for the same periods). This benefit does not apply to workers whose loss of income is due to their refusal to adhere to a vaccine mandate.  

As the Omicron variant spreads and new regional public health restriction are put in place to limit capacity, the government is temporarily expanding the Local Lockdown Program to better support workers and businesses. The Local Lockdown Program has been expanded to include employers subject to capacity-limiting restrictions of 50 per cent or more; and reduce the current-month revenue decline threshold requirement to 25 per cent. Eligible employers will receive wage and rent subsidies from 25 per cent up to a maximum of 75 per cent, depending on their degree of revenue loss. The 12-month revenue decline test continues to not be required in order to access this support. These updated regulations will apply from December 19, 2021, to February 12, 2022.

Almost 900,000 small businesses accessed Canada Emergency Business Account loans to help maintain operations through this difficult time. By extending the repayment deadline, we are ensuring that these hard working business owners are able to focus on their operations and building back from this pandemic stronger than ever.

The COVID-19 pandemic has shown that Canadian small businesses need to adopt digital technologies to meet customers’ needs and to stay competitive. The government recently launched the Canada Digital Adoption Program (CDAP), a $1.4 billion investment over four years to help as many as 160,000 small businesses go digital, take advantage of e-commerce, and become more competitive in Canada and abroad. CDAP will create training and work opportunities for as many as 28,000 young people.

To help small businesses recover and grow, Budget 2021 contains the new Canada Recovery Hiring Program that will run from June to November 2021, and provide up to $595 million to make it easier for businesses to bring back laid off workers or to hire new ones. The government is proposing to extend this program to May 2022. 

The Jobs and Growth Fund is a $700-million federal program that supports regional job creation and position local economies for long-term growth. This includes up to $70 million dedicated to businesses created after January 2020 that meet the eligibility criteria. The fund will help job creators and the organizations that support them future-proof their businesses, build resiliency and prepare for growth by supporting the transition to a green economy, fostering an inclusive recovery, enhancing Canada’s competitiveness through digital adoption to improve productivity and manufacturing processes and strengthening capacity in sectors critical to Canada's recovery and growth. This program supports activities that foster an inclusive recovery, including those that support businesses owned or majority-led by underrepresented groups, such as Indigenous peoples, members of racialized communities, women, youth, LGBTQ2, persons with disabilities, newcomers to Canada, and members of official language minority communities.

Over the next four years, the Budget proposes up to $146.9 million to strengthen the Women Entrepreneurship Strategy (WES). This new investment will focus on affordable financing, increasing data and strengthening ecosystem capacity by providing women entrepreneurs with greater access to financing, mentorship and training, as well as supporting the WES Ecosystem Fund.

Last year, our government launched the Canada’s first ever Black Entrepreneurship Program (BEP) to help Black business owners and entrepreneurs recover from the pandemic, grow their businesses, and succeed now and into the future. The BEP is part of a broader Government of Canada commitment to address systemic barriers and racism against Black Canadians. The Black Entrepreneurship Loan Fund is a partnership between the Government of Canada, Black-led business organizations, and several financial institutions. It will provide loans up to $250,000 to Black business owners and entrepreneurs across the country.

These measures will provide affordable financing to these businesses and strengthen capacity within the entrepreneurship ecosystem.

The Government of Canada is committed to examining any further supports needed to ensure that Canadian small businesses can continue to remain viable now and in the future. We have always had the backs of Canadians, and we will always have the backs of Canadians as we build an economy that is stronger, fairer, more competitive and more prosperous for all Canadians.