Government makes a step towards small business
The deadline for repayment of emergency business account loans has been extended for another year.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau delivered closing remarks at the Liberal Party national meeting in London, Ontario. In his statement, he announced an extension of the repayment deadline for the Canada Emergency Business Account (CEBA) loans. The government will provide another year for full payment and additional flexibility for those loan holders who want to take advantage of the partial loan forgiveness option — up to 33%.
The original maturity date was the end of 2022. It was later extended to the end of 2023. And now Trudeau has officially announced that the deadline has been moved to the end of 2024.
The Canadian Emergency Business Account (CEBA) is one of the small business support measures introduced during the COVID-19 pandemic years. The program ran from April 9, 2020 to June 30, 2021. It provided interest-free, partially forgivable loans of up to CA$ 60,000 to nearly 900,000 businesses and non-profit organizations. In total, Canada provided more than CA$ 49 billion in loans under CEBA.
As of May 31, only 21% of businesses had fully repaid their loans. Withal some small businesses are calling on the federal government to completely forgive pandemic loans.
