April 8, 2020

COVID-19 Wage subsidy update

As we recently reported in a previous CMA News, the Government of Canada announced an up to 75 per cent  wage subsidy for qualifying businesses to help them keep and return workers to the payroll. 

Today, the Prime Minister of Canada  announced a few things we thought would be of interest to the sector:

For the period from March 15 to April 11, 2020, as many closed their doors mid-month, organizations will not have to show a 30% decrease in revenue, but rather a 15% decrease. For the following periods it remains at 30%, as clarified by the Finance Minister. Organizations can use January and February 2020 as reference points for revenue decline. For more information see the  government’s backgrounder on this topic.

The Prime Minister also noted today that not-for-profit organizations and charities have the option to include or exclude government funding in the calculations of their revenue loss.

We know these plans are dependent on negotiations on the Bill to adopt these measures. That being said, we wanted to share with you these important developments.

Please note that today there were also announcements about  temporary changes to the Canada Summer Jobs program to help small businesses weather the current crisis. The Canada Summer Jobs program is not to be confused with the Young Canada Works program delivered by the CMA. This announcement does not have a direct bearing on YCW funding. We will continue to keep you posted on any matters related to the YCW program.

Museums have been significantly impacted by COVID-19 and will be for some time to come.

We appreciate the government’s relief efforts to date and they are certainly an important step in the right direction. That being said, they are not enough to address the extent of the problem.

This is why you can expect the CMA to continue to advocate, with our provincial and territorial counterparts and partners organizations, for an urgent, dedicated museum relief fund to support lost revenues, as well as an emergency development fund for digital activities. We also intend to pursue an update to the National Museum Policy, as we believe updating the 30-year old policy could in part help address some of the challenges the sector is currently facing.