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House Hansard - 221

44th Parl. 1st Sess.
September 20, 2023 02:00PM
Context: House Hansard - 221 - Sep/20/23
Hon. Rechie Valdez (Minister of Small Business, Lib.)
  • Sep/20/23 3:12:15 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I was also a small business owner during the pandemic, and I really understand the struggles many continue to face. That is why we are offering additional flexibilities for small businesses to repay their CEBA loans, which are both balanced and fiscally responsible. This includes a full one-year extension on the repayment deadline, more flexibility on refinancing and more time to access the loan forgiveness. We will keep listening to small businesses across the country, and that includes all Canadians.
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Context: House Hansard - 221 - Sep/20/23
Mr. Taylor Bachrach (Skeena—Bulkley Valley, NDP)
  • Sep/20/23 6:52:28 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, there is nothing more disingenuous than a government implying it has delivered on the requests of constituents when the reality is anything but. Prior to the summer break, I rose on behalf of tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, small businesses across the country and called on the government to extend the repayment deadline for the CEBA loans. These are the Canada Emergency Business Account loans, which these businesses took out during the pandemic to help during an extraordinarily difficult time. Many of these businesses did not recover as fully as they had expected to, and they were faced with the additional costs of inflation and a tight labour market. A few weeks ago, I received some excited texts from business owners who had read on social media that the government had indeed extended the terms of the CEBA loans and the regional relief and recovery fund loans for small businesses. Of course, a few minutes later, when they had had a chance to read the fine print, they realized with disappointment that what the government had done was something very incremental and not at all what had been asked for by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business and thousands of small businesses, including businesses in northwest B.C., the area I am proud to represent. The most attractive part of the loans for small businesses that were struggling was the fact that the government had offered a significant loan forgiveness program. If small businesses took out $60,000, the maximum amount allowed under these loan programs, they were able to keep up to $20,000. That is money these small businesses could invest in improvements to their business to make them safer, to make them more efficient and to keep their doors open during some of the toughest economic times this country has seen, so we saw huge uptake of this program. Businesses were asking the government to do something that is very reasonable, which was to extend the repayment terms for that program by one year. They would still pay back the portion of the loan that they originally were required to, but because of the unique conditions of rising inflation and the tight labour market, they wanted some more time. I think that is something that was very reasonable to expect, so it was disappointing to see that, while it did extend by one year the deadline for avoiding a 5% interest charge, when it came to the loan forgiveness portion, the most significant aspect of these small business loans, the government, and this is quite surprising, extended the deadline by three weeks. I am serious. Businesses still have to pay back the money before January of the coming year or they are going to lose up to $20,000 in loan forgiveness. This is incredible. What the government did was not at all what small businesses had asked for, yet it is trying to take credit for helping small businesses. What I am looking for from the parliamentary secretary this evening is, first of all, an opportunity to express the disappointment of these thousands of businesses and, second, a clear and succinct explanation, not smoke and mirrors or distraction talking about other programs, for those businesses. I am looking for an explanation of why the government refused to extend the loan forgiveness portion of the CEBA and RRRF loans.
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