Daily COVID-19 Update: April 28, 2020

Criteria for Restarting the Economy

Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, all orders of government have been working together to slow and contain the spread of the virus. As the first wave of the virus’ activity passes, provincial and territorial governments will move at their own pace to safely restore economic activity within their jurisdictions, while protecting the health of Canadians.

The Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, today announced that the federal, provincial, and territorial governments have come together and agreed to a set of common principles for restarting the Canadian economy, based on shared understanding and appreciation of what science and experts are telling us. This statement identifies the criteria that need to be in place before we can go back to work and school, or see neighbours and friends.

This statement acknowledges the importance of restarting the economy through a gradual approach that protects the health of Canadians, including high-risk groups, as well as the need to ensure public health capacity for future waves of the virus, while at the same time continuing to support a range of economic sectors and Canadian workers.

The statement acknowledges that provinces and territories will take different steps at different times in order to ease restrictions, reflecting the specific circumstances in each jurisdiction. The statement identifies four main principles, including taking a science and evidence-based approach to decision-making, coordination and collaboration between all jurisdictions, continued accountability and transparency of all governments, and flexibility and proportionality as information changes over time.

This statement also identifies the criteria and measures that need to be in place in order to begin to take steps to restart the economy:

COVID-19 transmission is controlled, so new cases are contained at a level that our health care system can manage.

• Sufficient public health capacity is in place to test, trace, isolate, and control the spread of the virus.
• Expanded health care capacity exists to support all needs, including COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 patients.
• Supports are in place for vulnerable groups, communities, and key populations. This includes the protection of seniors, residents of group living facilities, workers in close quarters, homeless people, and Indigenous people and those living in remote locations, health care workers and other essential workers, and inmates.
• Support and monitoring of workplace protocols are in place to keep Canadians safe at their jobs, and prevent the introduction and spread of COVID-19.
• Restrictions on non-essential travel are eased and managed in a coordinated manner.
• Communities are supported in managing local disease activity, including in child care, schools, and public transportation, and industry and economic sectors are engaged to support the health of Canadians, reduced viral activity, and protection of the economy as it restarts.

Changes to CERB Eligibility for Self-Employed Workers

Previously, self-employed individuals could not earn more than $1000 in employment income. This has now been specified that business owners “should consider their net pre-tax income (gross income less expenses)” in calculating their earnings for the CERB

Small Business owners can receive income from their business in different ways, including as salary, business income or dividends. In determining their eligibility for the Canada Emergency Response Benefit:

• Owners who take a salary from their business should consider their pre-tax salary;
• Owners who rely on business income should consider their net pre-tax income (gross income less expenses);
• Owners who rely on dividend income should consider this as self-employment income provided it comes from non –eligible dividends (generally, those paid out of corporate income taxed at the small business rate).

Those who pay themselves through dividends are also now eligible for CERB as long as the dividends are non-eligible dividends (generally those paid out of corporate income taxed at the small business rate) Non-eligible dividends count towards the minimum $5000 in income required for eligibility. Non-eligible dividends also count toward the $1000 income threshold for a benefit period. Find more information through the Q & A resource on CERB here

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