Like me, your likely frustrated by the lack of details on how the Canadian Wage Subsidy programs will assist your organization to get through the current fiscal uncertainty created by the COVID-19 virus.

The Canadian Payroll Association has been kind enough to put together a very concise description of how the new 75% wage subsidy program will work and how it will interact with the original 10% wage subsidy program, which remains in effect, which I would like to share with you Canada Wage Subsidy

Why a 75% wage subsidy: There is no way that the Canadian government is going to be able pay some 2M newly unemployed in any kind of reasonable time. The goal is to get businesses to make those payments and then be reimburse in 6 weeks, when the Canadian government may be able to get their act together.

My recommendation is to claim the 10% wage subsidy (as this can be deducted from your next CRA Payroll remittance) first and then, if entitled, claim the 75% wage subsidy (which is at least six weeks away) less what you already claimed under the 10% subsidy.

FYI: Both subsidies appear to apply to both existing employees and new hires. The other interesting thing to note (but I could be wrong) is the fact that neither wage subsidy specify that the employee has to be actually reporting for work, only that the employer must be paying them. This makes sense, given that the goal is to get money into the unemployed hands within a couple of weeks rather than a couple of months (which is likely what will happen to those waiting for government unemployment cheques).