A Closer Look at the Fall Economic Statement
/Here are some of the revelations from Supporting Canadians and Fighting COVID-19: Fall Economic Statement 2020, issued by the federal government November 30. Our thanks to Irene Cheung of Canadian Heritage for collating this information for us!
Wage Subsidy
The federal government is raising the maximum wage subsidy rate back to 75 per cent.
To help young people develop stronger connections to the job market, and to support employers through a period of economic recovery, the government intends to support up to 120,000 job placements through Canada Summer Jobs in 2021-22 – an increase of 40,000 from 2020-21 levels. To this end, the government proposes to provide approximately $447.5 million in new investments in the program next year.
This investment will support employers by helping reduce staffing costs and will be used to extend by one year program flexibilities introduced in 2020-21, including the ability to hire youth outside of the summer months. It will also increase the maximum available wage support, allowing employers to receive up to 100 per cent of minimum wage for each employee. Employers will also be able to more easily hire part-time workers, and employers will be able to adapt their projects and job activities to support essential services.
To help young people, including those who may face more complex barriers to employment, and who may have been driven further from the labour force due to the pandemic, gain the skills and experience needed to find and keep quality work, the government proposes to invest $575.3 million over the next two years in the Youth Employment and Skills Strategy to provide approximately 45,300 job placements for young people. [This strategy funds the Young Canada Works programs for heritage organisations.]
New funding for live performance sector
Cultural and recreation industries, which employ hundreds of thousands of Canadians, have been particularly hard hit by the pandemic, being among the first to shut down and likely among the last to return to regular activities. The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in the near complete suspension of live events and arts presentations, affecting thousands of self-employed and freelance artists and event workers across the country.
Supporting the live events and arts sectors is expected to benefit a broad diversity of artists and freelance cultural workers, such as performing artists and live event workers, including those from Indigenous, deaf and disability and official language minority communities. This new funding will aim to support arts and culture workers and projects across the country. The arts and live events sector is roughly gender-balanced and has a high proportion of low-income earners. The median individual income of Canadian artists is $24,300, or 44 per cent less than all Canadian workers.
To support the planning and presentation of COVID-19-safe events and the arts — including both live and digital — and to provide work opportunities in these sectors, the government will provide $181.5 million in 2021-22 to the Department of Canadian Heritage and the Canada Council for the Arts to expand their funding programs.
This includes a one-year renewal of funding provided in Budget 2019 for the Building Communities through Arts and Heritage program, the Canada Arts Presentation Fund and the Canada Music Fund.
Taxation of web giants
Everyone must contribute their fair share, so that the government has the resources to invest in people and keep our economy strong. That is why we are proposing to move ahead with implementing changes to ensure that the Goods and Services Tax/Harmonized Sales Tax (GST/HST) applies in a fair and effective manner to all ecommerce transactions, including those facilitated by multinational digital giants.
Support to the AV sector
The government will also provide additional COVID-19 relief to local television and radio stations by supporting the waiving of broadcasting Part II licence fees in 2020-21, which are collected annually by the Canadian Radiotelevision and Telecommunications Commission. Waiving these fees will provide up to $50 million in relief to these companies, helping them to stay afloat and maintain their broadcasting offerings to Canadians.
To address the impact of COVID-19 on film and television productions across the country, the government announced a $50 million Short-Term Compensation Fund in September 2020. This initiative is compensating for the lack of insurance coverage for COVID-19–related filming interruptions and production shutdowns, allowing the industry to continue with its operations.
Access to liquidity
Introduce the Highly Affected Sectors Credit Availability Program (HASCAP) to help bridge vulnerable businesses to the other side of the pandemic. The government will work with financial institutions in the near term to create a new program for the hardest hit businesses, including those in sectors like tourism and hospitality, hotels, arts and entertainment. This stream will offer 100% government-guaranteed financing for heavily impacted businesses, and provide low-interest loans of up to $1M over extended terms, up to ten years. Rates will be lower than those offered in BCAP and beneath typical market rates for hard hit sectors.
Initially providing loans of up to $40,000, with up to $10,000 forgivable, the Canada Emergency Bank Account (CEBA) program will soon be expanded, allowing qualifying businesses to access an additional interest-free $20,000 loan, in situations where there is need. Half of this additional amount, up to $10,000, would be forgivable if the loan is repaid by December 31, 2022. The deadline to apply for a CEBA loan has been extended to March 31, 2021.
Thanks to the Ministry of Canadian Heritage for these provisions, and to Irene Cheung for this resource!
