He was responding on twitter to statements by the Business Council of Canada, which said it was relieved to see the enhanced wage subsidies for small and medium-sized enterprises but looked forward to additional supports for employees of large Canadian companies.

MAC and the Explorers and Producers Association of Canada were among more than 60 Canadian business organisations which had called on governments last week to support a national effort to protect jobs and postpone "non-essential new regulations" and tax increases.

The government had doubled its existing stimulus package on Friday and pledged open-ended support, which could result in the largest government intervention in the economy since World War II, Bloomberg reported.

"If you're a small business owner or entrepreneur, we're here to help," prime minister Justin Trudeau tweeted on the weekend.

"We're increasing the wage subsidy up to 75% for qualifying businesses, launching the Canada Emergency Business Account, deferring GST and HST payments, and more so you have the support you need to pull through."

However the business council pointed out on Twitter "COVID-19 does not discriminate by business size".

Gratton agreed, saying SMEs' customers were large employers.

"Mines are closing, shedding jobs, cancelling contracts - with SMEs," he tweeted.

"We must protect the whole economy and make sure that when the recovery starts we have the capacity to recover."

The country's largest gold mine, Canadian Malartic, is among the operations scaling back or being suspended in line with authorities' pandemic prevention measures.