ALBERTA – The Business Council of Alberta applauds today’s announcement by the Government of Canada increasing Canada’s wage subsidy for small and medium-sized employers to a 75% subsidy. This measure will greatly support our dynamic and important SME employers and do a great amount to keep more Canadians employed in this crisis.
When Canadians feel more secure in their employment and finances, they will be more willing to follow public health orders and stay home. Additionally, small businesses are a cornerstone of our national economy and these policy announcements will help protect them and their employees. In Alberta, 54% of people are employed in small and medium enterprises.
“This level of wage subsidy is the beginning of the scale that Canada needs to be responding to the COVID-19 crisis with, and we encourage the Government of Canada to take further large economic steps to protect people, business and the economy,” says Adam Legge, President of the Business Council of Alberta. “Other nations are responding with economic supports in the range of 10-15% of GDP and Canada should be targeting a similar level of response.”
The government has the support of the Business Council of Alberta to move with greater speed and scale than they are currently.
Key to the success of this program will be the speed in getting this support to people and businesses. We encourage the federal government to find ways to be able to deploy these funds within a matter of weeks.
“We also wish to re-iterate our request to the federal government to suspend or delay any cost increases for Canadians and Canadian businesses,” says Legge. “That is why we ask the federal government to delay any planned tax increases or burdensome new regulations during this crisis, specifically the planned 50% increase to the carbon tax on April 1st .”
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About the Business Council of Alberta. The Business Council of Alberta is a non-partisan, non-profit organization dedicated to building a better Alberta within a more dynamic Canada. Composed of the chief executives and leading entrepreneurs of the province’s largest enterprises, Council members are proud to represent the majority of Alberta’s private sector investment, job creation, exports and research and development.