Trudeau said the new Canada Emergency Commercial Rent Assistance program will help small businesses cover their rents for April, May, and June. The assistance is being rolled out in collaboration with the provinces and territories as it’s within their jurisdictions.The federal government is also opening up the eligibility criteria the Canada Emergency Business Account.
The program, targeted at small- and medium-sized businesses, offers government-guaranteed loans of up to $40,000 to cover the costs of keeping their enterprise afloat during the COVID-19 crisis. If the company can repay the balance of the loan by the end of 2022, up to $10,000 will be forgiven.
The current eligibility requires applicants to prove that they paid between $50,000 and $1 million in payroll in 2019, leaving out some businesses on either side of these figures.Now, companies who paid between $20,000 and $1,500,000 in total payroll in 2019 will be eligible to receive a loan. Read more here.