This translation has been automatically generated and has not been verified for accuracy.People walk through a shopping mall in downtown Montreal, Sunday, March 22, 2020, at a time when the Quebec government announced that all shopping malls will have to close down as of midnight as Coronavirus COVID-19 cases rise in Canada and around the world.
Several countries have introduced measures to partially cover wages rather than sustain mass layoffs as they ask citizens to stay home. Denmark and Britain have taken the most dramatic steps to pay salaries for employers that commit to keep workers on. "The government needs to create wage subsidies that allow Canadian businesses to keep people on payroll so they are ready to fuel the economic recovery when the pandemic is over.”
As part of its economic response plan, Ottawa has said it will spend up to $10-billion on an emergency care benefit for sick or quarantined workers or those caring for loved ones who are sick with COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. Mr. Kelly at CFIB said he was “optimistic” the government is considering a larger wage subsidy, “but for this to work, it needs to happen now, not after most employers trigger their layoff decisions."He said his organization would ask its 110,000 members to push their MPs to lobby for it. Mr. Hyder at BCC said the wage subsidy shouldn’t cover everyone, but only those whose ability to work had been stopped by the pandemic.