'We are leading the country in putting in place the most generous and most comprehensive job creation programs'
Manitoba and New Brunswick have both announced wage subsidy programs.
Manitoba’s “Back to Work” wage program will reimburse up to $5,000 employers for up to 10 new workers to a maximum of $50,000.
Businesses that have already benefited from provincial summer wage subsidies are eligible for this new wage subsidy benefit to hire or bring back an additional 10 employees. The program will reimburse half of all wages for those newly hired to Oct. 31. Employers that have received financial support from other various provincial and federal programs are all eligible.
Over the past month, more than 300 Manitoba businesses have applied for about $5 million to support 1,000 positions, says the government.
“Getting people back to work safely is job number one for our government,” says Manitoba Premier Brian Pallister. “We are leading the country in putting in place the most generous and most comprehensive job creation programs our province has ever seen and any province has put in place.”
Manitoba will also be extending the Manitoba Gap Protection Program deadline for applications to Aug. 31 from July 31. Businesses that are ineligible for federal support can also apply for an immediate $6,000 under this program, which has provided more than $45 million in COVID business relief to over 7,600 employers that otherwise had no government support.
More than 2,500 Manitobans have already applied for the Manitoba Job Restart Program, which provides up to $2,000 to those who safely return to work and voluntarily stop collecting the federal Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) or Canada Emergency Student Benefit (CESB).
The Manitoba government has also called on the federal government to change the Canadian Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) so it does not penalize Canadians wanting to return to work as the pandemic subsides.
New Brunswick
New Brunswick is expanding the federally funded essential worker wage top-up program to private sector home care support workers who provided direct, in-home personal care to clients of the Department of Social Development during the period from March 19 to July 9, and early learning and childcare enhanced support workers who provide direct client care.
“This program sets out to help frontline workers who are providing personal care to our vulnerable population,” says Trevor Holder, minister of post-secondary education, training and labour. “These workers are vital to our COVID-19 recovery and I thank them for their contributions.”
The private sector home care support workers will be eligible to receive the benefit the of which is dependent on the number of hours provided to the client during the identified timeframe: $500 for hours at or above 30 hours a per week; $250 for hours of at least 20 but less than 30 per week; and $100 for hours of at least 10 but less than 20 per week.
Meanwhile, the enhanced support workers will receive monthly payments over 16 weeks of $500 a month and the first and last payments will be split to align with existing payment schedules. They will receive their top-up retroactive to May 19 and it will continue for 16 weeks.
The following essential workers have already been eligible to receive wage top-ups through this program:
- early childhood educators in early learning and childcare facilities
- home support workers providing direct in-person care to seniors, adults and children
- direct person care in group homes, community residences, special care homes, homeless shelters and transition houses
- domestic violence intervention workers
- food bank and soup kitchen workers
