Thank you very much for the questions.
The time to receive the wage subsidy is of very significant concern. I will point you to slide nine of my slide deck. For those who are saying they would not be helped by the wage subsidy, the primary reason is that it is already too late, because it took some time to get the program in place. The second-largest reason is that it will be too late for them from this point forward before the money is in their hands, as they just don't have the cash flow to be able to survive.
When asked about that, the government has pointed business owners to the CEBA, the Canada emergency business account, as a way of bridging that gap. I think for many it will help. I will point out that the program just opened up today, and we are already hearing concerns from business owners about some of the process steps in that. I see that in real time on Twitter.
The payroll requirement is the number one concern we have about that. There should be no floor. Micro-sized businesses should absolutely be allowed to apply to set up those accounts. I think that's absolutely critical, as well. The million-dollar upward threshold needs to be raised significantly in order to allow medium-sized firms to access it, too.
On the flexibility of all these programs, I think Susanna from the chamber got it exactly right. Having a cliff at which you actually get some money at the 75% level or get zero if you're below that 30% is unfair. There should be a graduated level of support if the impact on your firm perhaps is less.
On your final question, on rent abatement, we are very much supportive of measures to reduce costs. Small firms right now just don't need deferrals of some of their expenses. They need some of these costs to be taken away.
The NDP in Ontario have put forward a proposal that sounds quite similar to what you're suggesting, using the 75% figure from the wage subsidy. They're saying that on the first $10,000 in rent, the commercial renter should have 75% forgiven by the provincial government. That could just as easily be done by the federal government. However, the feds and the provinces, I think, especially where businesses have been ordered to shut down, do need to step up to the table.