Finance and Accounting
Canadian tax – The new 75% wage subsidy
On April 11, 2020, the legislation implementing the Federal Government’s new Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy (“CEWS”) was enacted. The CEWS is a $73 billion subsidy intended to support the well-being of workers, maintain employment relationships and reduce claims on the employment insurance regime.
Competition compliance during the COVID-19 crisis: Price-gouging, deceptive marketing and collusion
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Canadian businesses are facing unprecedented challenges in obtaining access to financing, maintaining their supply chains, serving their customers and keeping their employees healthy and safe. But as businesses struggle to maintain their normal business operations, they need to remain vigilant to ensure compliance with Canada’s competition and consumer protection laws.
Impact of digitized environments & modern workplaces on internal investigations
One of the hallmarks of a successful investigation is rooted in the expression “knowing what you don’t know.” An experienced investigator knows a lot about a lot of things – different types of fraud, corruption, theft, misconduct, and the psychology underlying what motivates people to violate the trust that has been placed in them.
Time to wake up to risk reality
For 11 years, the ERM Initiative at North Carolina University has surveyed executives (this year they were again all financial executives) about what they call “the current state of risk oversight processes in organizations of all types and sizes to obtain an understanding of the relative maturity of underlying activities executives and boards use to monitor the rapidly changing risk landscape”.
COVID-19 impact: Business interruption insurance issues
It is clear that COVID-19 is creating an entirely new set of health, economic and social problems for everyone. Insurers must be responsible partners in the fight against COVID-19. It is important that their service levels to the public, particularly with respect to claims, remain as uninterrupted as possible.
Consuming and creating digital media in the era of COVID-19: Copyright rules to remember
The recent increased activity in the consumption and creation of digital media because of social distancing makes it a prime time for a copyright law refresher.
Considerations for directors during the COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic has affected, and continues to affect, Canadian businesses in a significant manner. As this situation continues to evolve, directors should remain cognizant of their duties and responsibilities as corporations face a range of challenges, including liquidity issues.
COVID-19 market impacts and the risk of opportunism
The COVID-19 pandemic has taken a sledgehammer to stock markets, with the S&P/TSX 60 and S&P 500 each plunging approximately 20% during the first quarter of 2020. While boards and management must contend with a long list of pressing and unprecedented issues affecting business operations, they should also consider that the current drop in stock prices may fuel a wave of activism and opportunistic M&A activity once the immediate crisis subsides, and prepare accordingly.
Protecting Canadian public companies from the potential class action fallout of COVID-19
One of the key metrics to determining how attractive a target a company is for class action lawyers is the length of the anticipated “class period” – i.e. the period between the date of the first misrepresentation and the date of the corrective disclosure.
COVID 19 impact: Ontario issues emergency order prohibiting price gouging of necessary goods
On March 28, 2020, the Government of Ontario issued an emergency order prohibiting retailers and individuals from charging unfair prices for necessary goods that Ontarians need to protect themselves from COVID-19. The necessary goods on the list include:
Everybody should be familiar with this
Scenario analysis is a method for creating responses to various future events with the aim of reducing uncertainty and maximizing the chances of achieving a desired outcome.
COVID-19 : Available solutions to the challenges resulting from the current crisis and the different restructuring alternatives at your disposal
Never before in history have businesses of all sizes and of all or almost all industries faced a crisis resulting from a simultaneous decline of supply and demand. The resulting liquidity crisis is creating pervasive insecurity among the managers of businesses and the stakeholders of those businesses, including their employees, shareholders, customers, suppliers, creditors and the communities in which the businesses operate.
COVID-19 update: Rent payment and commercial lease enforcement during the pandemic
In this brief update, we consider the last of the above remedies, being the landlord’s ability to terminate a commercial lease, re-enter and re-let the premises, in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.
COVID-19: Updated consolidated briefing of federal/provincial measures
On March 20th, we provided you with a summary of the federal and provincial measures imposed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. In this Bulletin, we provide an updated overview of the national action plan and select provincial measures, including the economic support measures imposed to date.
COVID-19 and the law of frustration
We are flying blind into this storm. The pandemic is certain to affect, and has already affected, all kinds of contractual relations. I think it possible, even probable, that COVID-19 will be held to be an “Act of God” and available to excuse performance of all kinds of contracts, contracts of employment and contracts of sale or supply.
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