Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy

The Canada Revenue Agency has denied or adjusted $458 million in funds disbursed to employers through a pandemic-era wage subsidy program as a result of a partially completed auditing process.

In late 2021, Tressa Mitchell was dealing with doctor's appointments for her ailing mother when she got a call from the Canada Revenue Agency seeking information to verify her eligibility for the Canada Emergency Response Benefit.

Canada's auditor general says COVID-19 benefits were delivered quickly and helped mitigate economic suffering, but the federal government hasn’t done enough to recover billions of dollars in overpayments.

Benefits rolled out at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic allowed vulnerable Canadians to stay healthy while maintaining an income, but business supports were excessive and show the outsized influence of business groups on public policy, economists say.

While the pandemic meant layoffs or reduced hours for workers, Canada’s richest CEOs recorded their second-best year ever for compensation, according to a new report from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.

Peter Julian, the NDP House leader, has written to the government complaining about its decision to delay the return of Parliament.

The group Savestartups.ca counts 21 businesses, most of them cafes, bars and restaurants in B.C. and Ontario, that have found themselves unable to access the government’s wage and rent subsidies because they opened after the pandemic was declared.

A federal wage subsidy for employees in businesses hit hard by COVID-19 will last at least through the summer and the federal government is asking companies to rehire laid off staff — many of whom have received aid from an emergency benefit that has gone over budget.

Rev. Jean-Luc Laflamme knows that Thetford Mines has seen better days. The "golden age" in the working-class community in southcentral Quebec, best known for its now-closed asbestos mines, was in the 1950s and 1960s, he said.