On April 11, 2020, the Federal Government passed the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy (CEWS) legislation which provided that the CEWS was to be in place from March 15, 2020, to June 6, 2020. The April 11th legislation also provided the Federal Government with the option to extend the CEWS to September 30, 2020, without having to reconvene Parliament to pass further legislative amendments. On May 8, 2020, less than one month since the passing of the CEWS legislation, the Federal Government announced the extension of the CEWS “beyond June 6, 2020”. There were no further details, provided in the Prime Minister’s announcement with more details forthcoming including the new extension period. Given the passing of the April 11, 2020, CEWS legislation, we do not anticipate any other substantive changes to the CEWS program asides from its extension, including the qualifying criteria for the CEWS. Consistent with the existing CEWS program, we anticipate that employers that qualify for CEWS for the month of May (provided the CEWS eligibility for the month of May was satisfied by virtue of the computation of revenue decline) might then be deemed to automatically qualify for CEWS for the month of June. However, we will only be able to confirm these expectations when the Federal Government provides further details.
