Emergency federal aid is flowing to millions of Canadians, with hundreds of thousands more claims waiting to be processed, the federal government said on Monday.
Federal figures showed that 5.38 million people were getting payments through the “Canada Emergency Response Benefit.” That includes some two million people who were previously approved for employment insurance benefits but moved over to the new $2,000-a-month benefit that opened for applications one week ago.
During the first week it was available, there were nearly 3.5 million claims, including 172,000 over the weekend. Figures provided by the office of the federal Employment Minister show that the government has received about six million claims for financial help in total since the crisis began one month ago, when non-essential economic activity was halted paused due to the coronavirus.
More federal help for companies is to arrive next week in the form of an interest-free loan program to provide eligible small businesses and non-profits up to $40,000, with the promise of $10,000 being forgiven if the entire loan is paid by the end of 2022.
The 75% wage subsidy program, approved by Parliament on Saturday, will pay up to $847 per week, per employee for up to 12 weeks. The subsidy is retroactive to March 15 and will be available to companies with a 15% revenue drop in March, or a 30% decline in April or May.