The federal government’s move to increase the wage subsidy to 75 per cent from 10 per cent for COVID-19-affected small- and medium-sized businesses is a major development that will help stanch the bleeding in the country’s private sector, entrepreneurs and business groups said Friday.

The new subsidy, announced in Ottawa by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, is “finally on the scale to make a difference” and will go a long way toward keeping more Canadians employed during the COVID-19 crisis, said Adam Legge, president of the Business Council of Alberta.