The federal Local Lockdown Program (LLP), announced during the Omicron surge, is a temporary program intended to provide financial subsidies to qualifying businesses significantly impacted by local Covid-19 public health orders.
The program is essentially a short term expansion of existing supports announced in Fall 2021 in connection with the Hardest-Hit Business Recovery Program (HHBRP) and the Tourism and Hospitality Recovery Program.
Unless extended, Local Lockdown Program subsidies will be unavailable for any days before December 19, 2021, and after March 12, 2022.
A separate program for hiring subsidies, the Canada Recovery Hiring Program (CRHP), also runs until at least spring 2022. It is unlikely that eligible retailers will be able to claim both the LLP and the CRHP at the same time.
View RCC HHBRP Overview.
View RCC CRHP Overview.
How do I qualify?
For retailers unclear whether or not they could qualify for a Local Lockdown Program subsidy, and how much that could be, here is how this new program works:
- Only claims periods from December 19, 2021, to to March 12, 2022 are available for applicants under the temporarily expanded Local Lockdown Program criteria.
- Applicants do not need to show a full lockdown order to access the new Local Lockdown Program. Showing reduced capacity can still be enough to qualify, IF
- One or more of the retailer’s locations is subject to a health order that effectively reduces capacity at that location by 50% or more, and
- Activities restricted by the order made up at least 50% of the retailer’s total qualifying revenues in the prior reference period.
- Retailers will also need to meet other enterprise-level financial decline criteria. The threshold here is less stringent than the threshold under the Hardest Hit Business Recovery Program (HHBRP): for this new Local Lockdown Program, retailers only need to show a minimum 25% revenue reduction at the enterprise level, and only for current-month losses.
- Once they qualify for the Local Lockdown Program, retailers can access the Local Lockdown Program subsidy.
- The subsidy rate is set at the same rate as the retailer’s rate of revenue decline, up to a maximum of 75%; e.g., a 34% reduction in revenues will generate a 34% subsidy on rent and payroll (see Table 1)
- While Table 1 only mentions the first two claim periods, the same subsidy rate will continue into March.
Table 1.
| Current month revenue decline | Period 24-25 December 19, 2021-February 12, 2022 |
|---|---|
| 75% and over | 75% |
| 25-74% | Revenue decline e.g., 50% revenue decline = 50% subsidy rate |
| 0-24% | 0% |
Once a retailer has figured out their subsidy rate, to which eligible expenses can they then apply that rate to calculate the dollar amount of their subsidy?
Eligible expenses under the Local Lockdown Program would be the same as those under the Tourism and Hospitality Recovery Program. For retailers: in general, wage subsidies may be used to cover part of your employee wages based on your drop in revenue during the COVID-19 pandemic. The same applies to rent and property subsidies, which may be used to cover part of your commercial rent or property expenses based on your drop in revenue during the COVID-19 pandemic. For more information, see which of your employees qualify under COVID-19 wage and hiring support and what expenses you can claim for COVID-19 rent and property subsidies.
How do I apply?
- Applications will most likely be through the Canada Revenue Agency general portal for COVID-19 relief programs.
- View CRA application site.
For more information: