Prime Minister shares COVID-19 economic response plan to support Canadians

Ottawa – The Canadian government has laid out a detailed economic plan to help Canadians – and Canadian businesses – facing hardship as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak.

In a live-streamed press conference, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced new economic measures to help stabilize the economy during this challenging period. These measures, delivered as part of Canada’s COVID-19 Economic Response Plan, will provide up to $27 billion in direct support to Canadian workers and businesses.

Several of those measures are aimed at helping small businesses, including:

• Emergency Care Benefit to help workers who are ill, quarantined, self-isolating or caring for someone else who is ill.
• Emergency Support Benefit for those who lose their job as a result of the health situation or are self-employed and forced to close up shop.
• Temporary wage subsidy for three months to support businesses facing revenue losses and to help prevent lay-offs.

Read full details of the plan.