Prime Minister Trudeau today announced significantly increased financial assistance for small and medium sized business.  He recognized that these businesses are the backbone of the Canadian economy and are significant employers.  He also said that he hoped that these new measures will encourage these employers to keep their employees on the payroll and avoid lay offs as well bring back those employees that have been laid off.

Details of these new measures have not yet been released.  Prime Minister Trudeau expects those to be available by Monday March 30, 2020.  Hendry Warren will stay tuned for those and continue to keep you informed.  In the interim, here is a brief summary of these new measures:

1. The previously announced wage subsidy is being increased from 10% to 75% of wages paid and will be backdated to March 15, 2020.
2. A new Emergency Business Account is being created whereby eligible small and medium sized business will be able to obtain cash flow loans from major chartered banks of up to $40,000. These loans will be guaranteed by the federal government, will be interest free for the first year and $10,000 of the principal will be forgivable if certain conditions are met.
3. The remittance of HST, GST and federal duties is being postponed to June 2020
4. The Export Development Corporation is being provided with more money with which it can support Canadian businesses.

It will be important to examine the eligibility conditions for the above assistance to understand how this affects you.  However, this certainly appears to be good news for our clients.