CEWS Registry: Canadian Employers Receiving COVID-19 Wage Subsidies

A registry of corporations and registered charities in Canada that received the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy between March 15, 2020, and October 23, 2021. The dataset includes legal and operating names but excludes subsidy amounts, claim periods, and non-corporate entities like sole proprietorships. Published by the Canada Revenue Agency, the registry is final as the program ended in 2021.

Use Cases

• Identify corporate recipients of pandemic aid based on disclosed legal and trade names.
• Analyze the scope of a major government subsidy program based on the registry's entity coverage.
• Study the evolution of public disclosure for emergency benefits based on described changes to the registry over time.

Strengths

• Covers a specific, nationally significant economic program with a defined time range from March 2020 to October 2021.
• Explicitly documents its scope, detailing what entity types are included and excluded to protect privacy.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data may reflect temporal bias inherent to the open_canada platform, focusing solely on the pandemic period.

Provenance

Source

Canada Revenue Agency | Agence du revenu du Canada

Collection Method

Administrative registry compiled from program applications, cancellations, withdrawals, and eligibility determinations.

Time Range

March 15, 2020 to October 23, 2021 (program active period)

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-29 15:31:55.858006; freshness should be verified as the underlying program is closed.

Geography

Canada