Grant and contribution program
(S) Wage Earner Protection Program payments to eligible applicants owed wages and vacation pay, severance pay and termination pay from employers who are either bankrupt or in receivership as well as payments to trustees and receivers who will provide the necessary information to determine eligibility (Wage Earner Protection Program Act)
Department of Employment and Social Development · Education, skills and employment
In fiscal year 2024–25, Department of Employment and Social Development paid out $63.4 million under (S) Wage Earner Protection Program payments to eligible applicants owed wages and vacation pay, severance pay and termination pay from employers who are either bankrupt or in receivership as well as payments to trustees and receivers who will provide the necessary information to determine eligibility (Wage Earner Protection Program Act), up from $60.4 million in 2023–24. That is $2.12 per tax filer.
Headline figures
Fiscal year 2024–25
$63.4M
Up $3.0M from $60.4M in 2023–24.
Per tax filer uses 29,965,100 tax filers (2023, the latest count published); per person uses a population of 41,162,593 (2024). An allocation of cost, not a tax bill.
Show these figures as a table
| Fiscal year | Spending |
|---|---|
| 2023–24 | $60.4M |
| 2024–25 | $63.4M |
Largest recipients
The largest named recipients of payments reported under this program in 2024–25. Location is the recipient's address, which is not always where the money is spent. Recipient payments can differ slightly from the program total above because the Public Accounts report them separately.
| Recipient | Location | Paid | Per tax filer |
|---|---|---|---|
| Payments under $100,000 (12,505) | Location not stated | $63.4M | $2.12 |
Source and basis
- Detailed information on Transfer Payments, as per the Public Accounts of Canada, retrieved 2026-11-03. Open Government Licence - Canada.
- Recipients: Detailed information on Transfer Payments, as per the Public Accounts of Canada.
- Net expenditures of this transfer payment program in the Public Accounts. It overlaps with program spending, so do not add the two.
← All education, skills and employment spendingHow the figures are calculated