Staff Who Processed Pandemic Emergency Benefits for Businesses Struggled Due to High Demand: Federal Report

The Canadian flag flies near the Peace tower on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, on June 17, 2020. The Canadian Press/Adrian Wyld

A federal agency that issued many corporate subsidy cheques during the COVID-19 pandemic saw staff complaining of overwork while facing “significant pressure” due to the influx of demand for the emergency funds, an internal audit report says.

The report was prepared by the Office of Audit and Evaluation (OAE) at National Research Council Canada (NRC) to assess the Innovation Assistance Program (IAP)—an emergency wage subsidy for small- and medium-sized enterprises involved in research and development—during the pandemic.

As first reported by Blacklock’s Reporter, the auditors found that though the IAP was “delivered effectively and efficiently,” it came at a cost to the wellbeing of public servants who processed the applications.

“[D]elivering the IAP put pressure on staff, given an absence of surge capacity within the NRC,” said the report released last September. “Employees’ mental health, wellbeing and work-life balance were challenged.”

The findings were based on a mixed-methods approach consisting of interviews, focus groups, and case studies conducted between July and September of 2021.

The report said the program was finalized in four days after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made the announcement on April 17, 2020. The application portal was set up by the fifth day and subsidies were paid out till the program ended on March 13, 2021.

“Standing up the program in just four business days, assessing more than 4,000 applications, developing contribution agreements for 2,000 firms and processing as many claims, while simultaneously fielding program inquiries all in a very tight timeframe put significant pressure on staff,” the auditors wrote.

‘Unexpected’

One feature of the IAP was that it allowed companies to “stack” subsidies from other federal schemes up to 100 percent of their payroll costs. However, it led to an “unforeseen” volume of work to manage the stacking limits.

“Unexpected work was created namely by the need to manage complexities of funding stacking under very tight timeframes,” said the report. “Government-wide emergency supports were noted to be difficult to navigate.”

The IAP program cost $373.8 million. According to the report, 55 percent of the recipients “also received another form of government support” such as the Canada Emergency Business Account (CEBA) interest free loan.

The report claimed that the IAP supported 26,581 jobs and 2,230 firms. Auditors cited case studies of how the program helped firms avoid layoffs, rehire staff that were temporarily laid-off, and avoid a decline in business long enough for operations to stabilize.

“Maintaining staff was especially key,” they wrote.

The report also cited reviews of companies who receive the funding with one “external organization” being quoted as saying, “by far the fastest I’ve seen government get dollars out the door!”

Not all things are rosy pertaining to the pandemic loan relief programs rolled out by Ottawa. An inquiry raised by Conservative MP John Williamson last year on the dollar amount of CEBA loans “projected to be written off as bad debt or other reasons such as fraud” shows a grim outlook.

Cabinet, in an Inquiry of Ministry tabled in the House of Commons, put the figure at $2.4 billion, though loans are not repayable until Dec. 31, 2023.

A report by the federal industry department published in last December noted borrowers of CEBA tended to be small and heavily indebted.