Deadline looms for small business “pandemic” loan payback
Thursday, January 18 is the deadline for businesses that received a Canada Emergency Business loan during the pandemic to pay it back. Around 900 thousand business owners and non-profit groups across Canada took advantage of the program and received up to 60-thousand dollars in interest free loans to remain afloat. Business organizations say thousands of struggling groups will be forced to close if the government does not extend the deadline once again.
Here in Alberta that number breaks down to 125,000 businesses or 6.8 million dollars in federal government loans. Andrew Sennyah of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business says $20,000 of the $60,000 loan is forgivable if the rest is paid back by deadline day – Thursday.