This bill is from the 43rd Parliament, 2nd session, which ended in August 2021.
Chrystia Freeland Liberal
This bill has received Royal Assent and is now law.
This is from the published bill. The Library of Parliament has also written a full legislative summary of the bill.
This enactment amends the Income Tax Act to revise the eligibility criteria, as well as the level of subsidization, under the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy (CEWS) as part of the response to the coronavirus disease 2019. It also extends the CEWS to June 30, 2021. The enactment further amends the Income Tax Act to introduce the Canada Emergency Rent Subsidy (CERS) in order to support those hardest hit by the coronavirus disease 2019. This subsidy provides relief in respect of rent and interest on debt obligations incurred to acquire real property used by businesses, charities and not-for-profit organizations in the course of their businesses or other activities. The rent subsidy is effective as of September 27, 2020.
All sorts of information on this bill is available at LEGISinfo, an excellent resource from the Library of Parliament. You can also read the full text of the bill.
Bill numbers are reused for different bills each new session. Perhaps you were looking for one of these other C-9s:
Chrystia Freeland Liberal University—Rosedale, ON
Mr. Chair, the key issue here is a question of focus. My focus is on tomorrow, not on yesterday. My focus is on helping businesses get through the second wave.
Gord Johns NDP Courtenay—Alberni, BC
Mr. Chair, does the minister feel that small businesses have to focus on the six months where they got no help, yes or no?
Chrystia Freeland Liberal University—Rosedale, ON
Mr. Chair, businesses have had help since the beginning of the pandemic. They have had loans, including a significant forgivable portion through CEBA. They have had access to the wage subsidy. Going forward, they will have an additional expansion of CEBA.
Gord Johns NDP Courtenay—Alberni, BC
Mr. Chair, many mom-and-pop businesses actually did not get any help with the wage subsidy and they were counting on commercial rent. Does the minister believe that it was an injustice that they did not get any help?
Chrystia Freeland Liberal University—Rosedale, ON
Mr. Chair, that is one of the reasons we put CEBA in place, so that the smallest businesses in our country can get support. That is why we are adding another $20,000, including $10,000 forgivable. It is also—
Gord Johns NDP Courtenay—Alberni, BC
Mr. Chair, does the minister agree or believe that, with the amount of deficit that we are running to help everybody, the people who were excluded from the commercial rent assistance program should still have to contribute to paying that back through their children or grandchildren, or whoever is going to pay it back?
Chrystia Freeland Liberal University—Rosedale, ON
Mr. Chair, as I said, I think it is entirely right for MPs to be concerned about all businesses in their ridings, but I have thought about this really carefully and my view is that the inherently limited resources of the government should be focused on the future. They should be focused on supporting businesses to keep on operating. That means that going-forward support should be and will be our focus.
Gord Johns NDP Courtenay—Alberni, BC
Mr. Chair, does the minister believe that there should be some strings attached in terms of the targeted bailouts and full participation of employers in Canada in terms of active and laid-off workers?
Chrystia Freeland Liberal University—Rosedale, ON
Mr. Chair, I am not sure what targeted bailouts the member opposite is referring to, but certainly with LEEFF there are very stringent conditions and that is entirely appropriate.
Luc Berthold Conservative Mégantic—L'Érable, QC
Mr. Chair, my question will be very simple. I will quote someone who has spoken a number of times tonight and who said:
That person said, “Let me be very, very clear.”
We have heard that many times, but I have never heard anyone as unclear as her this evening.
The Parliamentary Budget Officer has been critical of the fact that the minimal amount of information that is publicly available to track this spending is lacking, thus making it more challenging for parliamentarians to perform their critical role in overseeing government spending. Why is the government hiding information from Canadians?
Jean-Yves Duclos LiberalPresident of the Treasury Board
Mr. Chair, I thank my colleague for raising this question.
If my colleague carefully reads what has happened over the last few days, he will see that we have launched an open government information system that contains many files that he can access online. We also have a system that displays the supplementary estimates and the main estimates in detail, with hundreds of pages that he can easily access.
Luc Berthold Conservative Mégantic—L'Érable, QC
Mr. Chair, the Parliamentary Budget Officer says that there is currently no public government document that provides a complete list of all measures announced to date or updated cost estimates. Why are they so bent on refusing to provide these answers?
Jean-Yves Duclos Liberal Québec, QC
Mr. Chair, I commend and thank my colleague once again for his interest in this issue.
He knows very well that transparency and access to information are extremely important in normal times, and they are just as important in a pandemic. That is why we are working so hard with the Parliamentary Budget Officer and others to provide all the necessary information.
Luc Berthold Conservative Mégantic—L'Érable, QC
Mr. Chair, I would encourage the President of the Treasury Board to read the Parliamentary Budget Officer's report carefully.
Why is this government saying two different things? On the one hand, we have a Prime Minister who clearly says that he has no respect for Canadians' money, that he has not set a limit on future spending and that he will continue to borrow recklessly and without constraint. On the other hand, we have a finance minister who says she is setting limits but will not disclose what those limits are.
Where are we going with this government? How far into debt will this government plunge Canadians?
