In a new letter to Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland, organizations representing hundreds of thousands of small businesses are calling for another year or two to pay back their Canada Emergency Business Account loans.
The federal government created CEBA early in the pandemic as one of a suite of financial aid measures aimed at keeping businesses afloat in the face of forced closures and health restrictions. Open for applications between April 2020 and June 2021, the loans wereIn January 2022, in the wake of the Omicron variant surge and new restrictions, the Liberals announced they would be. This meant that eligible businesses "in good standing" would have until Dec.
Now, businesses want to see the repayment deadline extended by two years to the end of 2025, or at least by one year, while maintaining access to the forgivable portion of their loans. "Extending the repayment timeline for the CEBA loan without losing access to the forgivable portion would give many small-and-medium size businesses the stability and certainty they need to get back on their feet on a path to prosperity."The letter warns that without leniency many of the local businesses—particularly in the tourism sector—that federal government doled out billions to help save could be forced to close.