The Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy will be extended until December as the country’s economy recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced today (Monday)

Trudeau said the extension of the $82 billion program will “give greater certainty and support to businesses” through the fall and winter.

As of July 6, the wage subsidy had paid out over 18 billion dollars to hundreds of thousands of companies in payroll help.

The government’s fiscal and economic “snapshot” last week boosted the budget of the wage subsidy program to $82.3 billion in a sign of impending changes.