The Canterbury Employers' Chamber of Commerce (CECC) has welcomed today's extension to the government's wage subsidy scheme for small businesses hit hard by the Canterbury earthquake.Peter Townsend, CECC chief executive, told NBR that there were still bus
The Canterbury Employers’ Chamber of Commerce (CECC) has welcomed today's extension to the government’s wage subsidy scheme for small businesses hit hard by the Canterbury earthquake.
Peter Townsend, CECC chief executive, told NBR that there were still businesses that were “really struggling – not a large number but enough.”
He praised the government for moving quickly to set up the initial scheme, with the first payments hitting bank accounts on the Thursday following the earthquake.
“That was necessary and I assure you that I’ve had a lot of feedback from small businesses in Christchurch saying that they wouldn’t be there if it wasn’t for the employee subsidy scheme.”
Mr Townsend said he understood the need to tighten up the scheme as the earthquake response moved from crisis management to a more planned recovery phase.
“Let’s hope that we can wean businesses off this but let me assure you that there’s no artificial requirement here,” he said.
“This was a real requirement in a real crisis, and I applaud government for their response and I applaud them for extending it.”
Speaking today at his regular Monday press conference in Wellington, Prime Minister John Key said that the government had already provided $8 million of taxpayer funds to the scheme.
Mr Townsend said that he understood the government had made an initial provision of $15m to the scheme and that close to $10m had already been used.
A Canterbury Earthquake Recovery survey last month found that, of nearly 400 Christchurch businesses surveyed, 92% were open and most of the remainder expected to resume trading within a month.
