The scheme closes today after Prime Minister John Key yesterday said it would not be renewed.
Mr Key yesterday said the package was intended to buy businesses time, and had to come to an end at some point.
Labour MP Clayton Cosgrove, who represents the Waimakariri electorate, said it was a "heartless" decision.
"No-one is arguing that the support package should go on for ever, but it is still only little more than three months since the shattering February quake," he said.
"There is no way many businesses could recover in that time, particularly those with equipment and records trapped in the red zone."
Mr Cosgrove said the package had not been replaced by anything but the dole.
"These businesses aren't recipients of welfare. Neither are their staff members.
"They have been puckerood by the September and February quakes, and now many of them won't be able to restart for reasons beyond their control."
The package was put in place after the February 22 earthquake to help employers continue to pay their workers until they could get their businesses up and running again.
In its first round the subsidy was paid to about 8000 businesses and covered 47,000 workers.
Tightened criteria were introduced in April, after which the number of businesses receiving the subsidy dropped to 800, covering 4000 workers.
Social Development Minister Paula Bennett said today that more than $200 million had been spent on the package and it was now time to deal with the realities.
"What we have done is helped those employers who needed time to either find another market or relocate or work out how they get their business up and running again," she told Radio New Zealand.
"We have done that now for something like 16 weeks, so you've got to say, 'How much longer are we going to do that?'
"I think this has been fair, it has been generous but it has to also come to an end.
''We can't still be doing this in six months or a year's time."
About as many businesses were turned down as received the package after the tightened criteria introduced in April.
"What they had to show in that second round was that they had a plan for how they were going to have their business sustainable when this employer subsidy ended," Ms Bennett said.
The Government had tried hard to find out what happened to those businesses that dropped out in the second round.
"When we looked at it most of those employers were saying, 'We don't need it, we've actually got ourselves up and running, we have found another way to keep working.'
"For some of them unfortunately it did mean that they folded completely."
Ms Bennett said recovery coordinators and Work and Income staff were on the ground working with businesses and people looking for work.
