When Ottawa sent billions in taxpayers' money to businesses struggling with the pandemic, nobody envisioned luxury golf courses pocketing million-dollar surpluses as a result. Yet that's an actual thing that happened and it's not the only example of a dubious outcome from entities that took advantage of an emergency pandemic program for businesses known as the Canadian Emergency Wage Subsidy (CEWS).
Foreign airlines that don't have operations in Canada received CEWS. So did the Canadian branch of the state-owned Bank of China. Federal and provincial political parties – which already benefit from generous subsidies not available to other non-profits or charities – got it, too. Ontario-based automotive parts maker Linamar received $108 million in CEWS payments and promptly announced it would be doubling its shareholder dividend. In fact, at least 68 Canadian companies that took CEWS paid out billions in dividends during the pandemic.
