Potential upgrades to the wage subsidy program by Ottawa is getting the thumbs up from Prince George Chamber of Commerce CEO Todd Corrigall.
The Liberals are looking to pass a bill to extend the program in the House of Commons today (Monday).
Finance Minister Bill Morneau stated payouts would be proportional to revenue declines due to COVID-19.
Corrigall told MyPGNow.com changing the amounts businesses can receive is necessary.
“The increase from 70% up to a maximum of 85% is a pretty good incentive to start bringing employees back, we had indicated that the 80 to 90 percent range was likely what was needed for businesses to bring back employees.”
“I think when you look at the original subscription rate where it was about 266-thousand businesses when they earmarked about a million that we’re going to apply that’s a pretty big miss on that mark.”
“Potential reduction to the 30% loss in revenue is something that is incredibly welcomed and a lot of the information released on Friday was done in consultation.”
Corrigall had an inkling changes to the program were on the horizon after Morneau doubled the program’s budget to 82-billion from 45-billion last week.
“It’s certainly indicative when they throw out numbers like that they are going to significantly change the structure of it, they have certainly received some insight and information that this is where businesses needed to be to subscribe to the program.”
“What we indicated back in May was that our hope was to see it extended until the end of 2020 just knowing that peoples spending habits needed to adjust whether it was layoffs or due to being a little more cautious with their income so this is really encouraging.”
If passed, the program will run until December 19th.