[1] The first measures were implemented when the COVID-19 Emergency Response Act received royal assent from Governor General Julie Payette on March 25, 2020.
[13] On April 15, eligibility for CERB was expanded to include seasonal workers, persons who had exhausted their Employment Insurance (EI) regular or sickness benefits, and those who have returned to work but still earn less than CA$1,000 per month due to reduced hours or lower demand.
[17] In 2022 the Auditor General of Canada, Karen Hogan, conducted a review into the CERB fund and concluded that "the federal government effectively delivered emergency COVID-19 benefits during the pandemic"[18] but that "deciding to not front-end verification resulted in $4.6 billion in overpayments to ineligible individuals.
[29] CESB applicants with a disability or caring for dependents receive an additional $750, increasing their monthly amount to the equivalent of a CERB payment.
"[39] Individuals who have travelled internationally are not eligible to receive the benefit for any period where they are not working due to mandatory quarantine requirements.
[40] Another program, the Canada Recovery Caregiving Benefit (CRCB) supports Canadians that have been working but have to take a break to care for dependents (a child below 12 years of age or a disabled family member).
[41] Individuals who have travelled internationally are not eligible to receive the benefit for any period where they are not working due to mandatory quarantine requirements.
[51] The move underscored the widespread difficulty in repaying the $49 billion distributed, as many businesses continued grappling with post-pandemic economic challenges.
[52] Several large employers which had laid off employees due to the economic effects of the pandemic announced they would re-hire workers in response to CEWS.
Air Canada announced because of the CEWS it would rehire (backdated to 15 March) 16,000 airline staff that were laid off due to the pandemic.
[47] The Business Credit Availability Program (BCAP), which was announced on 11 May 2020,[53] consists of guaranteed loans at commercial rates of between CA$6–80 million.
[57] Available from September 27, 2020 until June 2021, the subsidy helps qualifying organizations who have experienced a drop in revenue due to the pandemic, paying for part of their commercial rent or property expenses.
[57] The Large Employer Emergency Financing Facility (LEEFF; French: Crédit d’urgence pour les grands employeurs) provides government-backed bridge financing to large Canadian employers through the Canada Enterprise Emergency Funding Corporation (CEEFC)—which was formed as a subsidiary of the Canada Development Investment Corporation (CDEV) specifically to administer the LEEFF.
[58] On 11 May 2020, Trudeau, Morneau and Bains in a press conference said that "a bridge financing facility for large employers that need help to get through the economic downturn caused by the coronavirus."
Participation would be limited to recent post-secondary graduates (December 2019 or later) or students enrolled in spring, summer or fall 2020 semesters.
[72] On June 2, 2020, the Canada Revenue Agency announced a tip line for reporting suspected fraudulent CERB recipients.
[74] On June 8, legislation was proposed by the Liberal government that would allow persons found to have received CERB payments fraudulently be subject to fines or imprisonment.
[76] In 2022, the CRA began a massive clawback of individual COVID-19 benefits, issuing hundreds of thousands of demand for repayment letters to Canadians.
According to the CRA, "This ongoing process started by issuing initial contact letters to some benefits recipients to request documents to support their claims.
The second step was to issue Notices of Redetermination to individuals who were deemed to be ineligible for a portion or all of their claim, or who did not respond to the initial contact letters.