Bill C-17 explained in plain English

Bill C-17 amends tax and benefits legislation and creates new procedures for suspending or extending legal time limits in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Bill C-17 is a federal law that responds to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic through four main parts. Part 1 changes how the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy works under the Income Tax Act. The wage subsidy is money the government gives employers to help keep workers on payroll during hardship. These changes adjust the rules for which employers and workers qualify for the subsidy, including allowing employers to use an earlier time period (March 1 to May 31, 2019) to calculate what their workers normally earned, instead of using January 1 to March 15, 2020. The changes prevent employers who combine through mergers from using the merger to gain unfair access to the subsidy. Part 2 creates a new law called the Time Limits and Other Periods Act (COVID-19). This law allows the government to temporarily pause or extend legal deadlines that would be hard to meet because of COVID-19. For example, it suspends certain court filing deadlines between March 13, 2020 and September 13, 2020 (or whenever the Governor in Council ends the suspension, whichever is earlier). It also allows government ministers to pause or extend deadlines set by other federal laws and regulations, but only for a maximum of six months and only until December 31, 2020. The law does not apply to criminal investigations or time limits set by the Corrections and Conditional Release Act. Any orders suspending or extending deadlines must be posted on a government website within five days and published in the Canada Gazette within 14 days, and tabled in Parliament within three days. Part 3 allows the government to share certain personal tax information with officials for the purpose of delivering a one-time payment to persons with disabilities because of COVID-19. This change applies to information under the Income Tax Act and the Children's Special Allowances Act. Part 4 makes significant changes to the Canada Emergency Response Benefit Act (which provides income support payments to workers affected by COVID-19). These changes: - Change the application periods and payment frequencies - Require workers to state they stopped working for reasons related to COVID-19 - Make workers ineligible if they fail to return to work when reasonable, fail to resume self-employment when reasonable, or decline a reasonable job offer - Allow workers to request a review of decisions about their eligibility within 30 days - Establish new penalties (up to three times the weekly payment amount) for false statements, non-disclosure of income, or receiving payments they were not eligible for - Allow the Minister to warn instead of imposing penalties - Make it so no interest is payable on overpayments - Create criminal offences for fraud and other violations, with penalties of up to a $5,000 fine plus up to double the payment amount received, and/or up to six months in prison - Give the Minister power to designate investigators to enforce these rules - Give the Minister power to garnish amounts owed from money a debtor person is about to receive Part 1 changes took effect on April 11, 2020. Part 4 changes took effect on March 25, 2020 (except for certain sections). The powers in Part 2 expire on September 30, 2020.