Business leaders hope to delay CEBA repayment deadline to 2025

Local business owners are hoping that the support of the country’s premiers will be enough to help small shops in the community. 

Last week, Premier David Eby — along with the premier of every province and territory in the country — wrote a joint-letter urging the federal government to push back CEBA repayments by one year. 

“I was very, very happy to hear about it,” said Callan Morrison, a Port Moody councillor and co-founder of Squish Juicery.

The Tri-Cities Chamber of Commerce, who have been advocating for a deadline extension since the summer, also applauded the letter. 

“It’s great to finally see premiers across our nation uniting to take action on this with the prime minister,” stated Leslie Courchesne, CEO of the Tri-Cities Chamber. 

The federal government launched the CEBA loan program in 2020 to help businesses struggling during the pandemic. Over 900,000 businesses across the country were approved for a loan by the June 2021 deadline, and the government spent $49 billion on CEBA.

CEBA allowed small businesses and non-profit organizations to receive interest-free loans of up to $60,000. 

The repayment deadline — which was initially the end of 2022 — was extended to December 2023, and last month, the federal government granted another extension to Jan. 18, 2024.

But many politicians and local businesses owners say the new date is still not far enough. 

Courchesne wrote in a press release that many small businesses are being impacted by inflation and supply chain constraints. 

“Calling in these loans too early will have dire consequences for our small businesses, who are the backbone of our economy,” she stated. 

Port Moody council unanimously passed a motion led by Morrison in September in support of writing a letter to the federal government to push back the CEBA repayment deadline. 

Over 80 per cent of the businesses who successfully applied to CEBA had zero to nine employees, Morrison declared at the meeting. And roughly half of all small businesses across Canada are making less than they did before the pandemic, he added.  

In an interview with the Dispatch, Morrison said that most businesses used the loan to keep their business afloat, like paying rent and staff wages. The food and beverage industry, specifically, he said has been hit hard by inflation as costs to ship and acquire fresh product has risen. 

“It’s not like that money’s just floating around in a savings or investment account,” he said. “It’s all be spent on them trying to survive.” 

Businesses who pay back their CEBA loan on time are eligible for loan forgiveness up to 33 per cent, or a maximum of $20,000. If they don’t pay the loan back on time, businesses will lose that forgiveness and the payment will be converted into a new low-interest loan. 

Those refinanced loans must be paid by December 31, 2026, according to the Tri-Cities Chamber. 

Morrison is hoping that repayment deadline is extended until the end of 2025, and that the forgiveness portion is maintained through that date. 

“A lot of businesses are on the brink of whether or not they choose to continue to fight this though or shut down,” said Morrison, adding the extra forgiveness time would allow businesses to keep their doors open next year, pivot, or find new solutions. 

Ultimately, he said, small businesses provide employment, charitable contributions, and vibrancy to a local community. It’s important to support those businesses to keep the local economy and community thriving, he said. 

“If there weren’t small businesses, where would people hang out and have their coffees, enjoy social time, and shop for their goods locally?” Morrison said.

“Small businesses are the backbone of a community.”