'The world is too messy for bureaucratic hurdles': Canada still bars Afghanistan aid
Ottawa has plans to finally stop blocking Canadian development aid to Afghanistan this year.
Roughly 200,000 small businesses took on new debt to access the forgivable portion of their pandemic relief loans from the federal government, the Canadian Federation of Independent Business said Tuesday.
Many businesses took private bank loans with high interest rates to pay back enough of their Canada Emergency Business Account loans to qualify for partial loan forgiveness, CFIB president Dan Kelly said Tuesday.
Meeting the new payment obligations will be a challenge for some, he said.
"This has caused a real constraint on businesses," Kelly said in an interview. "They do so, in so many ways, with a gun to their head because they had no choice in order to access that forgivable portion."
The federal government provided up to $60,000 in interest-free loans to help businesses and non-profit organizations survive pandemic-related shutdowns and slowdowns.
Businesses that paid off the required portion of their loan by the repayment deadline were eligible to have the remainder forgiven. Those that missed the deadline lost out on the forgivable portion and saw their debt converted to a three-year loan with interest of five per cent annually.
The CEBA repayment deadline was extended twice, as businesses dealing with inflation and a slowing economy struggled to come up with the cash, and expired on Jan. 18.
However, a special extension to March 28 was allowed for companiesto refinance their loans with a financial institution instead.
As Thursday approaches, Kelly said, some of his organization's members are growing anxious.
"We're starting to get a bunch of calls from business owners that are still facing a level of CEBA panic," Kelly said.
According to the federal government's estimates, more than 80 per cent of CEBA recipients have paid back their loan as of March 22 and benefited from partial loan forgiveness.
Kelly speculated business owners on the verge of defaulting are likely to pay just the interest and not be able to keep up with their obligations.
"That should send an alarm bell to public policymakers," he said, as many small-scale businesses are facing bankruptcies.
The Office of the Superintendent of Bankruptcy said last month that the number of insolvencies filed by Canadian companies in 2022 was up 37.2 per cent compared with 2021.
The small business association is calling on Ottawa to establish partial forgiveness for businesses in the next three years as they start repaying their principal amount.
It is also urging banks to be compassionate toward businesses as they seek refinancing.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 26, 2024.
Ottawa has plans to finally stop blocking Canadian development aid to Afghanistan this year.
State-sponsored actors targeted security devices used by governments around the world, according to technology firm Cisco Systems, which said the network devices are coveted intrusion points by spies.
More than 115 people who viewed the solar eclipse in Ontario earlier this month experienced eye damage after the event, according to eye doctors in the province.
A Sherwood Park family says their new house is uninhabitable. The McNaughton's say they were forced to leave the house after living there for only a week because contaminants inside made it difficult to breathe.
The B.C. NDP has asked the federal government to recriminalize public drug use, marking a major shift in the province's approach to addressing the deadly overdose crisis.
A man has been handed a lengthy hunting ban and fined thousands of dollars for illegally killing a grizzly bear, B.C. conservation officers say.
The Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) says it's investigating an interaction between a uniformed officer and anti-Trudeau government protestors after a video circulated on social media.
A loud explosion was heard across Hamilton on Friday after a propane tank was accidentally destroyed and detonated at a local scrap metal yard, police say.
An emergency slide fell off a Delta Air Lines jetliner shortly after takeoff Friday from New York, and pilots who felt a vibration in the plane circled back to land safely at JFK Airport.
As if a 4-0 Edmonton Oilers lead in Game 1 of their playoff series with the Los Angeles Kings wasn't good enough, what was announced at Rogers Place during the next TV timeout nearly blew the roof off the downtown arena.
Mounties in Nanaimo, B.C., say two late-night revellers are lucky their allegedly drunken antics weren't reported to police after security cameras captured the men trying to steal a heavy sign from a downtown business.
A property tax bill is perplexing a small townhouse community in Fergus, Ont.
When identical twin sisters Kim and Michelle Krezonoski were invited to compete against some of the world’s most elite female runners at last week’s Boston Marathon, they were in disbelief.
The giant stone statues guarding the Lions Gate Bridge have been dressed in custom Vancouver Canucks jerseys as the NHL playoffs get underway.
A local Oilers fan is hoping to see his team cut through the postseason, so he can cut his hair.
A family from Laval, Que. is looking for answers... and their father's body. He died on vacation in Cuba and authorities sent someone else's body back to Canada.
A former educational assistant is calling attention to the rising violence in Alberta's classrooms.
The federal government says its plan to increase taxes on capital gains is aimed at wealthy Canadians to achieve “tax fairness.”