More than 10,000 Canadian businesses applied for the federal government's $73-billion wage subsidy program in the first few hours that the application process was open.
Ottawa’s subsidy program covers 75% of wages for employers that have seen sharp declines in revenue since the COVID-19 pandemic reached Canada – up to $847 per worker, per week.
Payment can be retroactive to the middle of March, and end in June -- about one month after the first payments are scheduled to start flowing on May 7.
A survey by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB), which represents thousands of small businesses in the country, suggest half will apply for the wage subsidy relief program. However, many businesses that laid off workers say they won't rehire them until economic restrictions ease and storefronts reopen, said CFIB.
A number of high-profile Canadian companies, such as Air Canada (T.AC), have said they will rehire furloughed workers because of federal aid. The wage subsidy program makes up half of the roughly $145 billion in federal spending on COVID-19 countermeasures, and will cause changes for the millions of workers who have either lost their jobs or had their hours slashed due to the current pandemic lockdown.
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