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New West council supports federal subsidy to help businesses

MP says CEWS doesn’t go far enough
COVID
photo Getty Images

New Westminster politicos are calling on the federal government to support businesses that are being hard hit by COVID-19.

On Monday, city council approved a motion calling on the federal government to extend the emergency wage subsidy program until such time that businesses are able to resume business at full pre-pandemic capacity. The motion states Canada’s emergency wage supplement is currently making the difference between the survival and failure of many small businesses.

While presenting his motion, Coun. Chuck Puchmayr said he had just learned the federal government had agreed to extend the benefit, which was set to expire Aug. 29.  Given that council won’t be meeting again until Aug. 31, he said he wanted to ensure the city informed the federal government of its support for the program.

“One of the businesses that brought this up gave me a really good example; they would have lost probably half of their work force had this not if already been in existence,” he said. “Losing this program, they would lose a lot of their skilled workers.”

Puchmayr said one local restaurant has had to reduce its seating from 129 to 55 seats because of social spacing requirements, something that’s not sustainable for many businesses.

“There are many, many restaurants that are in this same position right now. As one of the owners said, this is a slow moving train wreck that is going to have some dire consequences – by the time COVID is over, there will be a lot of casualties,” he said. “This motion is to ask (the federal government) to continue that support and keep these restaurants viable, and small businesses that are limited to capacity limits.”

Mayor Jonathan Cote agreed the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy has been among a number of important programs helping Canadians through the pandemic.

“We know that many of our local businesses, definitely in some specific sectors, are going to have a rough period during this time,” he said. “I think it’s important that we show our support for these types of programs.”

Launched as part of the federal government’s response to the pandemic, Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy (CEWS) provides eligible businesses affected by COVID-19 with a subsidy of 75% of employee wages for up to 24 weeks. The wage subsidy aims to allow businesses to rehire workers previously laid off because of COVID-19, to help prevent further job losses and to put them in a better position to resume normal operations following the crisis.

Peter Julian
New Westminster-Buranby MP Peter Julian says the federal government must do more to ensure Canadians are supported while business owners and workers begin to get back on their feet. - File

New Westminster-Burnaby MP Peter Julian said he welcomes the announcement that the CEWS program will be extended, but believes more help is needed for Canadian businesses.

“For weeks, we have been calling on the government to extend the CEWS past Aug. 29 and to adopt more flexible criteria so that more businesses can get the help they desperately need,” he said in a news release. “The existing criteria for CEWS is too restrictive, and New Democrats are pushing for changes to make the program more flexible.”

Julian, who is the federal NDP’s finance critic, said New Democrats have proposed a sliding-scale for the wage subsidy in order to help more businesses over the summer.

“Right now, if a business loses less than 30% of their revenue they don’t qualify for the CEWS. This arbitrary number chosen by the government is unfairly leaving too many businesses without the support they need,” he said. “Under the NDP approach, businesses with a smaller loss of revenue could still qualify for a partial wage subsidy so that more businesses get support.”