Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has announced additional COVID-19 government relief for small businesses in Canada, including changes to loan requirements and a new commercial rent program.
During his daily address to Canadians, the Prime Minister said that due to concerns from business owners across the country who were excluded from the initial criteria, the federal government revisited the eligibility requirements of the Canada Emergency Business Account (CEBA). The CEBA has been providing $40,000 loans to small and medium-sized businesses for the past few weeks, however, it was only available for businesses with payrolls between $50,000 and $1 million in 2019.
As of Thursday, Trudeau said now businesses with 2019 payrolls between $20,000 and $1.5 million are able to apply.
“This is money entrepreneurs and employers can use to cover operational costs and cover other immediate needs,” said Trudeau during a press conference at Rideau Cottage in Ottawa.
The loans offered through CEBA are interest-free for the first year and, on some conditions, $10,000 of it will be forgivable.
“To date, more than 195,000 loans have been approved. We’re talking about more than $7.5 billion dollars in credit to small and medium-sized businesses,” said Trudeau.
Along with the expanded parameters of the CEBA, Trudeau unveiled a new program targeting commercial rent relief.
According to Trudeau, the federal government has plans to launch the Canada Emergency Commercial Rent Assistance.
“This program will provide support to help small businesses with their rent for the months of April, May and June.”
The program is in the early planning stages as Trudeau said his government will need to have conversations with provincial leaders.
“To implement this program we have to work with the provinces and territories as they govern rental relationships and we hope to have more details to share very soon.”
Trudeau is scheduled to meet with the provinces and territories later today.
In addition to the updates on small business relief, Trudeau responded to comments made by President Donald Trump in regards to opening the Canada-USA border.
Trudeau said it would be “absolutely disastrous” to reopen the economy too early and allow another explosion of cases that would undo all efforts to date.
He also added that reopening the border is also not possible until Canada has a plan for responding to cases that arise in second or third waves.
That response would include “massive” levels of testing and rapid response plans to trace contacts and isolate patients immediately, according to Trudeau.
Graham Cox
