StatsCan: Use of Government COVID-19 Liquidity Support Programs by Immigrant-owned Businesses and Those Owned by Canadian-born Individuals

Of interest, with the same standard factors – gender, education, landing year and language skills – playing a role:

“Immigrant-owned businesses were more likely to be affected by the COVID-19 pandemic than other businesses, as they were more concentrated in industries requiring in-person contact and were smaller in scale. To support businesses affected by the pandemic, the Government of Canada launched various COVID-19 liquidity support programs, including the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy (CEWS), the Canada Emergency Commercial Rent Assistance (CECRA), the Canada Emergency Rent Subsidy (CERS) and the Canada Emergency Business Account (CEBA). These programs were designed to help affected businesses by partially covering their main expenses, such as wages, rent and property expenses. This paper combines data from the Canadian Employer–Employee Dynamics Database with data from these four support programs to study the use of the programs by immigrant-owned businesses and to compare the results with those of businesses owned by Canadian-born individuals. The results indicate that businesses majority-owned by immigrants were more likely to receive the CEBA and the CECRA or the CERS and less likely to receive the CEWS than businesses owned by Canadian-born individuals after controlling for other factors. However, businesses majority-owned by immigrants received slightly higher dollar values than those owned by Canadian-born individuals, regardless of the program. Among immigrant-owned businesses, the characteristics of the owners, such as gender, education, landing year and language skills, played an important role in the use of the liquidity support programs. For example, businesses whose owners arrived in Canada more recently were less likely to receive the CEWS, and they received a lower dollar value. Businesses whose owners spoke neither English nor French were less likely to receive the CERS, the CECRA or the CEWS, and they received the lowest dollar value when all the programs were combined.”

Read the full report: https://doi.org/10.25318/11f0019m2024002-eng