Trudeau pledges to cover 75 percent of businesses' payrolls

Justin Trudeau addressed media again Friday from Rideau Cottage in Ottawa.

Trudeau started by commending the Bank of Canada's actions this morning, who made a second cut to its benchmark interest rate, lowering it to 0.25 per cent amid the global pandemic.

To alleviate pressure, Trudeau announced that they will increase the amount of wages the government covers from 10 percent to 75 percent.

"Last week, we announced that we would cover ten percent of wages, but it's becoming clear that we need to do much more. We're bring that percentage up to 75 percent, for qualifying businesses," said Trudeau.

This will allow companies to keep people on the pay roll amidst the ongoing pandemic. Trudeau said more information would be released "very soon."

The subsidy for small and medium-size businesses will be back dated to March 15.

For those out of a job or self employed, Trudeau referred back to the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB.)

Finance Minister Bill Morneau said earlier this week that the CERB would be fully accessible to Canadians without paychecks, but have earned over $5,000 in the last 12 months.

Trudeau also confirmed that the CERB will be taxable, though the tax will not be taken off at source.

Trudeau announced the Canada Emergency Business Account, a $40,000 loan guaranteed by the government to qualifying businesses. The loan will be interest free for the first year, with $10,000 to be forgivable to

GST to HST payments will also be deferred until June. Taxes on imports will also be deferred.

"We recognize there's still more design work to be done on this, and we will have more on all the details hopefully by Monday. So people can make those decisions to keep people on the payroll and rehire to put people on the payroll."

Trudeau encouraged those who have laid off workers to put them back on payroll given the new support.