“Hardest Hit Business Recovery Program” for Businesses

 

Hardest-Hit Business Recovery Program

The Hardest-Hit Business Recovery Program replaces the federal wage and commercial rent subsidy programs which have run through most of the pandemic

The Hardest Hit program will provide commercial rent and wage subsidies for businesses not eligible for the new Tourism and Hospitality Recovery Program, and will be for businesses which have faced at least an average 50% decline in revenues over a 12-month period, plus at least 50% revenue declines in the current month.

Read the summary below for the program, which runs October 24, 2021 to May 7, 2022, and see full details at the government site here.

Eligibility

To use this program, businesses must have both:

  1. An average monthly revenue reduction of at least 50% over March 2020 to February 2021 (excluding the holiday season, currently set as Nov 22-January 16).  Any periods in which an entity was not carrying on its ordinary operations for reasons other than a public health restriction (for example, because it is a seasonal business) would be excluded from the 12-month average calculation
  2. A current-month revenue reduction of at least 50%.  This is calculated the same way as the previous wage subsidy, and thus would compare the current month versus the same month in 2019 or against the average of January-February 2020. 

Subsidy Amount

The maximum subsidy rate for wage and rent subsidies would be set at 50 percent from October 24, 2021, to March 12, 2022 (claim periods 22 to 26).  The maximum will then reduce by half from March 13 to May 7, 2022 (claim periods 27 and 28).

The subsidy would start at 10% for businesses with a 50% current-month revenue decline, increasing thereafter on a straight-line basis to a maximum rate of 50% for those with a current-month revenue decline of 75% or higher.