441-00136 (Business and trade)

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 temporarily expanding eligibility for key support programs offered for workers and businesses, extending initiatives such as the Canada Recovery Hiring Program (CRHP), the Canada Recovery Sickness Benefit (CRSB) and the Canada Recovery Caregiving Benefit (CRCB) until May 2022, and extending the loan forgiveness repayment deadline for the Canada Emergency Business Account (CEBA) 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.

For businesses facing pandemic-related losses, support is also now available through the Tourism and Hospitality Recovery Program (THRP) and the Hardest-Hit Business Recovery Program (HHBRP).

The THRP will provide support to tourism and hospitality businesses with wage and rent subsidies of up to 75 per cent. Eligible applicants include hotels, travel agents, tour operators, restaurants and other businesses directly related to tourism. This program started on October 24, 2021, and will end on May 7, 2022.

The 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 with wage and rent subsidies of up to 50 per cent.

To better support individual workers in the face of the Omicron variant, the Government temporary expanded the definition of a public health lockdown for the purposes of the Canada Worker Lockdown Benefit (CWLB). The CWLB is a program that replaces the Canadian Recovery Benefit (CRB) and provides $300 a week to workers who are directly affected by a COVID-related local lockdown and is available to eligible workers retroactively from October 24, 2021, to May 7, 2022. 

As the Omicron variant spread and new regional public health restriction were put in place to limit capacity, the Local Lockdown Program was there to provide employers facing temporary new local lockdowns with a subsidy rate of up to 75 per cent through the wage and rent subsidy programs. This program was meant to ensure that local authorities and public health officials could continue to make the right public health choices, knowing that support would be there for workers and businesses if needed.

Because of the CEBA, nearly 900,000 small businesses have been able to maintain operations through this difficult time. Eligible businesses have accessed more than $49 billion in federal support, and because many small businesses continue to face pandemic-related challenges, in January of this year the Government extended the repayment deadline for loans, to qualify for partial loan forgiveness, to the end of 2023. This extension will support short-term economic recovery, ensuring that loan-holders are provided consistent and fair treatment no matter where they live. 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 launched the Canada Digital Adoption Program (CDAP), an investment of $4 billion over four years, $1.4 billion in funding through Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada and $2.6 billion in Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC) loans, 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 contained the new Canada Recovery Hiring Program (CRHP) that was expected to 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 has extended this program to May 2022.

The Jobs and Growth Fund (JGF) 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 Government is investing up to $146.9 million to strengthen the Women Entrepreneurship Strategy (WES). This new investment focuses on affordable financing, increasing data and strengthening ecosystem capacity by providing women entrepreneurs with greater access to financing, mentorship and training. On March 8, 2022, the Government announced the first four not-for-profit delivery organizations which have been selected to deliver microloans through the Women Entrepreneurship Loan Fund. The Loan Fund will provide loans up to $50,000 to women business owners and entrepreneurs across the country. As well, the Government recently launched a new call for proposals for the WES Ecosystem Fund to help business support organizations to strengthen capacity and address ecosystem gaps for diverse populations of women entrepreneurs.

Last year, the 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.

We have also heard concerns about the pandemic's impact on our supply chains. That is why the Government announced a call for proposals under the national trade corridors fund, which has allocated up to $50 million to support projects designed to eliminate supply chain congestion. We know good transportation infrastructure and efficient trade corridors are crucial to Canadian businesses' success in the global market. These combined measures will provide affordable financing to businesses in Alberta and across Canada, and help 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 meet the challenges of the pandemic and post-pandemic for years to come. We have and will continue to support Canadians by focusing on climate change, advancing reconciliation with indigenous peoples and building an economy that is stronger, fairer, more prosperous and sustainable for the long term.