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Released: 14 January, 1999
Revenue Canada Announces Federal Youth Hires Program To
Give Employers Premium Relief For Hiring Young People
OTTAWA, January 14, 1999...The Honourable Herb Dhaliwal,
Minister of National Revenue and M.P. (Vancouver
South-Burnaby), and the Honourable Pierre S. Pettigrew,
Minister of Human Resources Development, announced today the
new Federal Youth Hires Program. This initiative is designed
to provide Employment Insurance (EI) premium relief to
employers who hire young people.
Under the program, the total EI premiums employers will pay
for youths in 1999 and 2000 will be no more than they paid in
1998. If employer EI premiums increase over this 1998 base
amount, employers will get relief.
"Revenue Canada is proud to play a role in supporting the
integration of young people into the workforce," said the
Minister of National Revenue. "We are encouraging employers to
create more opportunities for young people, who are eager to
participate fully in the growth of the Canadian economy."
"The Government of Canada has developed Canada's Youth
Employment Strategy to help young Canadians make a strong
transition from school to the labour market," said the
Minister of Human Resources Development. "I encourage
employers to take full advantage of Revenue Canada's relief
program which offers them direct support for creating
employment for young people."
There are two ways for employers to obtain premium relief.
One will be completely administered by the Department and the
other can be done by employers. For premium relief
administered by the Department, Revenue Canada will calculate
the 1998 total insurable earnings for employees aged 18 to 24
for each employer. This calculation will be based on the
information employers provided on the T4 and T4F information
returns for 1998. When the Department processes employers' T4
and T4F information returns for 1999 early in the year 2000,
it will calculate any premium relief to which employers are
entitled under this program. The same approach will be used
early in the year 2001 for T4 and T4F information returns for
2000.
If employers choose to benefit from the program during
1999, they will need to calculate themselves the EI insurable
earnings for 1998 related to their employees aged 18 to 24.
Once the same amount of EI insurable earnings have been paid
in 1999 for employees in this age group, employers may elect
to stop paying additional employer EI premiums for this youth
group.
This program supports the Government of Canada's Youth
Employment Strategy, which is designed to help youth make the
transition from school to work. Working in partnership with
businesses, non-governmental organizations, communities, and
other levels of government, the strategy addresses youth
employment issues by providing work experience opportunities
for unemployed or underemployed youth and students, by
providing access to relevant information on Canada's labour
market, and by facilitating access to learning.
More information on this program is available from tax
services offices and tax centres. The addresses and telephone
numbers for the offices are listed under "Revenue Canada" in
the Government of Canada section of the telephone book.
Information is also available on the Department's Web site at:
www.rc.gc.ca (Frequently Requested
Publications). For information on the Youth Employment
Strategy, call the Youth Info Line at 1-800-935-5555
or visit the Strategy on the Youth Resource Network at:
www.youth.gc.ca.
- 30 - " 02T/99
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