• The Honourable Diane Lebouthillier, Minister of National Revenue, today provided additional details on how the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) has made the home office expenses deduction available to more Canadians, and simplified the way employees can claim these expenses on their personal income tax return for the 2020 tax year. Employees with larger claims for home office expenses can still choose to use the existing detailed method to calculate their home office expenses deduction. Employees who worked from home more than 50% of the time over a period of a least four consecutive weeks in 2020 due to COVID-19 will now be eligible to claim the home office expenses deduction for 2020. A new temporary flat rate method will allow eligible employees to claim a deduction of $2 for each day they worked at home in that period, plus any other days they worked from home in 2020 due to COVID-19 up to a maximum of $400. Under this new method, employees will not have to get Form T2200 or Form T2200S completed and signed by their employer. For more information, visit Canada.ca/cra-home-workspace-expenses.
• The Ontario government is allocating an additional $120 million to help municipalities and Indigenous community partners protect the health and safety of vulnerable people during COVID-19. This investment builds upon the second phase of social services relief funding announced this fall and brings the government’s total allocation to $510 million. Municipalities and Indigenous community partners can use the discretionary funding to improve the delivery of critical services, protect homeless shelter staff and residents, renovate and purchase facilities to create longer-term housing solutions, add to rent banks and support plans to prepare for potential future outbreaks and/or emergencies. The funding is part of the Social Services Relief Fund, itself a part of the up to $4 billion being provided to Ontario municipalities under the federal-provincial Safe Restart Agreement.
• Today, the Honourable Anita Anand, Minister of Public Services and Procurement, announced that following successful negotiations and contingent on Health Canada authorization of the vaccine, Canada will be able to access 168,000 doses of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine in December 2020. These are part of the guaranteed 40 million doses, and up to a total of 56 million doses, that Canada has secured through its existing agreement with Moderna. As with all COVID-19 vaccine candidates, the Moderna vaccine must be authorized by Health Canada before being administered to Canadians.
• In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) recognizes that for many employers and employees, there have been changes in the way that work is being conducted. Consequently, employers may provide certain benefits, allowances, or reimbursements to ensure that their employees are not unduly subject to harm when performing their employment duties. Under these extraordinary circumstances, the CRA has adopted new positions for employer-provided benefits pertaining to commuting and home office costs. These positions are effective from March 15, 2020 to December 31, 2020.
• On Monday, St. Catharines City Council approved the 2021 Operating and Capital Budgets, representing a 1.86 per cent increase to the municipal portion of property tax in the year ahead for the median home. In 2021, the City projects non-tax revenue decreases of roughly 4.5 per cent, while at the same time an increase in operational costs of roughly $574,000, both largely related to the pandemic. In addition, other revenues related to City facility operations, such as the Meridian Centre and parking operations, are also being impacted. In total these items amount to a roughly $4.2 million impact on the 2021 budget, representing a roughly 3.9 per cent increase to the budget over 2020. The City used increased transfers from reserves — $2.7 million from the Civic Project Fund; $160,000 from the Hydro Reserve Fund; and $157,700 from the Tax Stabilization Reserve — in addition to a $1.9 million decrease in capital project funding from the Operating Budget to offset COVID-19 related costs to mitigate the pandemic’s impact on taxes. For the average homeowner, with a property value assessed at $254,000, the City portion of the property tax bill will increase by 1.86 per cent, amounting to an additional $29.98 for the year.
• Statistics Canada reported today that manufacturing sales rose 0.3% to $54.1 billion in October, following a 2.2% increase in September. The increase in October was almost entirely attributable to non-durable industries, led by the paper, and petroleum and coal industries. Year over year, sales were down 5.2%. Motor vehicle sales rose 1.9% to $4.6 billion in October, following a 2.8% decline in September. Despite the increase, sales were 3.8% below the pre-pandemic level in February and were down 11.7% year over year. In October, motor vehicle inventories were at their lowest level since January 2018 and contributed to the slow recovery in motor vehicle sales. Production in the aerospace product and parts industry were down 5.9% to $1.6 billion in October, following a 15.3% increase in September. Aerospace manufacturers ramped down production due to the collapse in demand and uncertainty surrounding the length of global travel restrictions during the second wave of COVID-19. Production in the industry was one-quarter (-25.1%) below pre-pandemic levels in February.

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