In addition to the Economic Response Plan providing support for families and individuals impacted by the outbreak of COVID-19, the Canadian government will provide support to vulnerable groups and businesses.

A reduction in minimum withdrawals from Registered Retirement Income Funds (RRIFs) by 25 per cent will provide flexibility to seniors that are concerned that they may be required to liquidate their RRIF assets to meet minimum withdrawal requirements.

Canada Student Loan payments will now have a six-month, interest-free, moratorium for all individuals who are in the process of repaying loans.

First Nations, Inuit, and Métis Nation communities will be provided with $305 million for a new distinctions-based Indigenous Community Support Fund.

Women’s shelters and sexual assault centres will receive up to $50 million to support women and children fleeing violence and to help with their capacity to manage or prevent an outbreak in their facilities. This includes funding for facilities in Indigenous communities.

In addition, $157.5 million will be provided to address the needs of Canadians experiencing homelessness through the Reaching Home program.

The Canada Revenue Agency will be deferring the filing due date for the 2019 tax returns of individuals, including certain trusts, experiencing hardships during the COVID-19 outbreak. For individuals other than trusts, the return filing due date will be deferred until June 1, 2020. For trusts having a taxation year ending on December 31, 2019, the return filing due date will be deferred until May 1, 2020.

The Economic Response Plan will also provide some relief for Canadian businesses by allowing them to defer the payment of any income tax amounts that become owing on, or after today and before September 2020.

A new Business Credit Availability Program will provide more than $10 billion of additional support to small, medium, and large businesses experiencing cash flow challenges through the Business Development Bank of Canada and Export Development Canada.

It will further expand Export Development Canada’s ability to provide support to domestic businesses.

The plan will also provide flexibility on the Canada Account limit, to allow the government to provide additional support to Canadian businesses, when deemed to be in the national interest, to deal with exceptional circumstances.

Farmers and the agri-food sector will have augmented credit available to them through Farm Credit Canada. Launch, an Insured Mortgage Purchase Program to purchase up to $50 billion of insured mortgage pools through the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC).

In order to move forward with implementing these new measures, the government intends to introduce special legislation and seek the approval of Parliament.

Ottawa says it will continue to take further action as required to prioritize the health and safety of Canadians, stabilize the economy, and mitigate the economic impact of this pandemic.