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For Your Information Measures Contained in the COVID-19 Emergency Response Act, Bill C-13The COVID-19 Emergency Response Act which received Royal Assent on March 25 contains the following provisions, which are excerpted from the website of the Department of Finance. Most of these measures have already been announced but are repeated here as official with some changes. The Notice of Ways and Means Motion to introduce Bill C-13 containing the complete text is available here. This legislation amongst other things: - Provides additional assistance to families with children by temporarily boosting Canada Child Benefit payments, delivering almost $2 billion in extra support. - Provides additional assistance to individuals and families with low and modest incomes with a special top-up payment under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) credit, delivering $5.5 billion in support. - Introduces a Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) providing a taxable benefit of $2,000 a month for up to 4 months to support workers who lose their income as of result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The benefit would cover Canadians who have lost their job, are sick, quarantined, or taking care of someone who is sick with COVID-19, as well as working parents who must stay home without pay to care for children who are sick or at home because of school and daycare closures. Additionally, workers who are still employed, but are not receiving income because of disruptions to their work situation related to COVID-19, would also qualify for the CERB. The CERB is available to Canadian workers affected by the current situation whether or not they are eligible for Employment Insurance (EI). Further clarification on how Canadians can receive the taxable benefit of $2,000 a month for up to four months called the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) reveals that eligible workers are those who lose their income as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The CERB combines the previously announced Emergency Care Benefit and Emergency Support Benefit. A Department of Finance News Release March 25 says that the CERB would cover Canadians who have lost their job, are sick, quarantined, or taking care of someone who is sick with COVID-19, as well as working parents who must stay home without pay to care for children who are sick or at home because of school and daycare closures. The CERB would apply to wage earners, as well as contract workers and self-employed individuals who would not otherwise be eligible for Employment Insurance (EI). Additionally, workers who are still employed, but are not receiving income because of disruptions to their work situation due to COVID-19, would also qualify for the CERB. This would "help businesses keep their employees as they navigate these difficult times, while ensuring they preserve the ability to quickly resume operations as soon as it becomes possible," the Finance Department News Release says. It says the EI system "was not designed to process the unprecedented high volume of applications received in the past week. Given this situation, all Canadians who have ceased working due to COVID-19, whether they are EI-eligible or not, would be able to receive the CERB to ensure they have timely access to the income support they need." "Canadians who are already receiving EI regular and sickness benefits as of today would continue to receive their benefits and should not apply to the CERB. If their EI benefits end before October 3, 2020, they could apply for the CERB once their EI benefits cease, if they are unable to return to work due to COVID-19. Canadians who have already applied for EI and whose application has not yet been processed would not need to reapply. Canadians who are eligible for EI regular and sickness benefits would still be able to access their normal EI benefits, if still unemployed, after the 16-week period covered by the CERB." "The portal for accessing the CERB would be available in early April. EI eligible Canadians who have lost their job can continue to apply for EI here, as can Canadians applying for other EI benefits." "Canadians would begin to receive their CERB payments within 10 days of application. The CERB would be paid every four weeks and be available from March 15, 2020 until October 3, 2020." Further excerpts from the Department of Finance March 25 news release state that the COVID-19 Emergency Response Act: - Introduces a pause on the repayments of Canada Student Loans in the Canada Student Financial Assistance Act, the Canada Student Loans Act, and the Apprenticeship Loans Act in order to introduce a 6-month moratorium on the repayment of Canada Student Loans for all borrowers currently in repayment. - Helps businesses keep their workers by providing eligible small employers a temporary wage subsidy for a period of three months. Eligible employers would include small businesses (including co-operative corporations) eligible for the small business deduction, unincorporated employers, certain partnerships, non-profit organizations and charities." [Note that this item was changed March 27 when the Prime Minister announced wage subsidies would go up to 75 per cent from 10 per cent for small and medium-sized businesses. The government will also guarantee bank loans up to $40,000 of which the first year will be interest-free and up to $10,000 of the loans could be non-repayable. Also, GST and HST payments, as well as duties and taxes owed on imports, will be deferred until June.] - Helps protect seniors' retirement savings from the impact of volatile market conditions by reducing required minimum withdrawals from Registered Retirement Income Funds by 25 per cent for 2020. - Supports provinces and territories with a COVID-19 Response Fund that would provide one-time funding of $500 million through the Canada Health Transfer for their critical health care system needs and to support mitigation efforts as needed. - Ensures the availability of drugs and medical devices by providing the Government with the authority to make regulations to address any future shortages of therapeutic products, including drugs and medical devices. This would include allowing for drug patent overrides in health emergencies in the period up to September 30, 2020, and for the importation of drugs and medical devices not authorized for sale in Canada to address certain shortages, such as for personal protective equipment or drugs required to treat COVID-19. - Supports Canadian businesses through the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC) by temporarily providing the Minister of Finance with more flexibility to determine BDC's capital limit, allowing it to provide further financial support to Canadian businesses when they need it. - Supports Canadian businesses through Export Development Canada (EDC) by temporarily providing the Minister of Finance with more flexibility in setting EDC's capital and liability limits -- as well as the Canada Account limit -- and expanding EDC's ability to engage in domestic financial transactions so that it can more effectively deliver financial and credit insurance support to affected Canadian businesses. - Supports the agriculture and agri-food sector by amending the Farm Credit Canada (FCC) Act to temporarily provide the Minister of Finance with the flexibility to set the limit on the amounts that may be paid by the Minister of Finance to FCC out of the Consolidated Revenue Fund to ensure continued availability of credit to businesses in the agriculture and agri-food sector. - Supports the mortgage financing market in Canada by enhancing the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation's (CMHC) access to capital, and increasing its insurance-in-force and guarantees-in-force legislative limits, so that it can continue to provide stable funding to banks and mortgage lenders in support of continued lending to Canadian businesses and consumers. - Protects Canadians from the Spread of COVID-19 by providing authority to a federal minister to requisition funds from the Consolidated Revenue Fund with the concurrence of the Minister of Finance and the Minister of Health to support federal efforts to prevent or control the spread of COVID-19. - Provides the Minister of Finance with flexibility to respond expeditiously to COVID-19 developments, by amending the Financial Administration Act (FAA) to temporarily remove the requirement for the Minister of Finance to receive Governor in Council's authorization in order to use emergency powers. - Supports the protection of Canadians' savings by providing the Minister of Finance with the flexibility to increase the Canada Deposit Insurance Corporation's deposit insurance limit beyond its current level of $100,000.
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