As the omicron variant slowed the recovery of businesses across various parts of Canada, the government is extending the Canada Emergency Business Account (CEBA) loan repayment.
According to a report, the CEBA program has offered interest-free, partially forgivable loans to nearly 900,000 small-scale businesses and non-profit organizations to help them deal with the scourge and remain resilient.
A few weeks ago, Honourable Chrystia Freeland, deputy prime minister and minister of finance, and the Honorable Mary Ng, minister of International Trade, Export Promotion, Small Business, and Economic Development, announced that the deadline for repayment of CEBA loans to qualify for partial loan forgiveness would be extended from December 31, 2022 to December 31, 2023 for all borrowers eligible with good credit standing.
“As Omicron has reminded us, we are still living in a pandemic. Our government understood, from the outset, that we had to put in place unprecedented measures to meet this unprecedented challenge. By providing small businesses with additional time to repay their loans and still have partial loan forgiveness, affected businesses and workers will continue to have the support they need to get through the pandemic,” said Freeland.
This extension will help support the economy’s recovery in the short term and provide greater flexibility to small-scale businesses and non-profit organizations, who face ongoing challenges because of the pandemic.
Repaying off your loan on or before the new deadline of December 30, 2023 will result in loan forgiveness of up to a third of the loan amount (meaning up to CA$20,000).
Outstanding loans could be converted into two-year term loans, with an interest rate of 5% per year starting on January 1, 2024, with the loans fully due by the end of December 2025.
The government has also announced that the deadline for repayment to be eligible for partial forgiveness for CEBA-equivalent loans through the Regional Relief and Recovery Fund is extended until December 31, 2023.
