Key Actions to Support Canadians Through the Pandemic

Provided more than $8 of every $10 spent in Canada to fight COVID-19 and support Canadians.

Protecting Your Health and Safety

  • Procured the most diverse vaccine portfolio in the world.
  • Received more than 66 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines—enough to fully vaccinate every eligible person in Canada—two months ahead of schedule.
  • Provided provinces and territories with $1 billion to support vaccine rollout campaigns across the country, including in Indigenous communities, so Canadians could get their first and second doses as quickly as possible.
  • Became a world leader in vaccination rates, with almost 85% of eligible people in the country vaccinated with their first dose and over 75% fully vaccinated.
  • Provided people with online access to mental health support through the Wellness Together Canada portal, which more than 1.2 million Canadians used in its first year.
  • Invested $19 billion through the Safe Restart Agreement to help provinces and territories safely restart their economies and make our country more resilient to waves of COVID-19.
  • Invested over $3 billion to restore Canada’s biomanufacturing and life sciences sector.
  • Increased Canada’s vaccine manufacturing capabilities, including by launching Canada’s Bio-manufacturing and Life Sciences Strategy. We have completed the new Biologics Manufacturing Centre at the NRC, secured an agreement with Moderna to build a state- of-art manufacturing facility in Canada, and made major domestic capacity investments with AbCellera, Medicago, Resilience, and Sanofi.
  • Made sure our provincial and territorial health systems were able to deliver world-class care by providing a one-time top-up of $4 billion to the Canada Health Transfer in March 2021, and $500 million in March 2020.

Support for the Economy

  • Created and rapidly delivered the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) to millions of Canadians, which provided $2,000 a month to workers who lost income because of COVID-19.
  • Protected over 5 million jobs through the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy, which helped businesses across Canada keep and rehire their workers.
  • Created three new temporary Recovery Benefits, to help Canadians who are unable to work because of COVID-19: the Canada Recovery Benefit, Canada Recovery Sickness Benefit, and the Canada Recovery Caregiving Benefit.
  • Provided families with children under six with additional support $1,200 for families through the Canada Child Benefit young child supplement.
  • Waived the interest for full-time and part-time students on the federal portion of Canada Student Loans and Canada Apprentice Loans until March 2023.
  • Created the Canada Emergency Business Account (CEBA) to provide small businesses with up to $60,000 in partially forgivable, interest-free loans.
  • Created the $2 billion Regional Relief and Recovery Fund which is supporting businesses through Canada’s Regional Economic Development Agencies, including business that don’t qualify for CEBA.
  • Helped over 150,000 businesses, charities, non- profits, and other organizations afford rent, mortgage, and other expenses.
  • Introduced the Canada Recovery Hiring Program, which provides support so businesses can afford to hire the workers they need to recover and grow as local economies reopen.
  • Provided $306.8 million to help small and medium- sized Indigenous businesses, and to support Aboriginal Financial Institutions that offer financing.
  • Created the Highly Affected Sectors Credit Availability Program, to help the hardest-hit industries, including the tourism and hospitality sectors, access low-interest loans.