Introduced in the federal government’s 2021 budget plan (Budget 2021), the new Canada Recovery Hiring Program (CRHP) provides eligible employers with a subsidy of up to 50 percent on the incremental remuneration paid to employees between June 6, 2021 and November 20, 2021.

Who is eligible for the CRHP?

The CRHP is available to the same taxpayers as the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy (CEWS); however, in the case of a corporation, only a Canadian-controlled private corporation (CCPC) will be eligible. In addition to CCPCs, eligible employers also include individuals, non-profit organizations, registered charities and certain partnerships. In order to apply for the CRHP, eligible employers, or their payroll service provider, must have a Canada Revenue Agency

(CRA) payroll account number on March 15, 2020.

When is the subsidy available?

The CRHP will be available starting June 6, 2021. The qualifying periods are listed in the table below:

Table 1: CRHP Claim Periods

QUALIFYING PERIOD*

QUALIFYING PERIOD DATES

BASE PERIOD

17

Jun 6 - Jul 3, 2021

Mar 14 - Apr 10, 2021

18

Jul 4 - Jul 31, 2021

19

Aug 1 - Aug 28, 2021

20

Aug 29 - Sep 25, 2021

21

Sep 26 - Oct 23, 2021

22

Oct 24 - Nov 20, 2021

* Period 17 of CEWS would be the first period of the CRHP. The numbering of the CRHP claim periods has been aligned to coincide with the numbering for the CEWS and CERS periods since they form part of the same legislation in the Income Tax Act.

How does an eligible entity qualify for the CRHP?

To qualify for CRHP, an eligible employer must have experienced a revenue decline in a qualifying period, which is determined in the same manner as under the CEWS. An eligible employer must have a revenue decline of more than 0% for period 17 or more than 10% for periods 18 to 22 in order to qualify for the CRHP.

An employer can choose to use the general approach (month-over-month comparison) or alternative approach (average of January and February 2020) to calculate their revenue decline, but the approach chosen must be consistent with the approach chosen for any previous CEWS and/or CERS claims the employer may have filed.

Moreover, eligible employers will be able to claim the higher of the CEWS or CRHP for a particular qualifying period, but not both. Since for periods 17 to 20, an eligible employer can choose to apply for either CEWS or CRHP, they will need to determine which measure will be more beneficial in each period.

For more information on the revenue decline calculation, please refer to our CEWS tax alert.

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