We previously published an article regarding the Government of Canada’s announcement that it would be implementing a Commercial Emergency Rent Subsidy program (“CERS”) to provide rent and mortgage support to eligible businesses impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Further to this prior announcement, on Monday, November 2, 2020, the Government of Canada announced the introduction of Bill C-9, An Act to Amend the Income Tax Act (Canada Emergency Rent Subsidy and Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy), which provides further details of the CERS program.

Our previous article regarding the announcement of CERS is available at Clark Wilson LLP’s COVID-19 Resources webpage.

In its latest announcement, the Government has advised that:

• CERS will provide rent subsidies directly to eligible businesses that have suffered revenue drops as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic until June 2021;
• applicants will be able to make retroactive claims for CERS for the period of September 27 to October 24, 2020;
• the rent subsidy will provide support of up to a maximum of 65% of eligible expenses until December 19, 2020; and
• CERS will include a “Lockdown Support” component, which will provide an additional 25% of rent support for certain qualifying organizations that are subject to a lockdown, meaning the business must “shut its doors” or “significantly limit” its activities as a result of a public health order issued under federal, provincial, territorial laws or by a municipal or regional health authority.

The Government of Canada has advised that additional details on the CERS program (including eligibility) will be released in the future.

We will continue to provide you with further updates as further information regarding CERS becomes available.