According to Statistics Canada’s latest statement on the status of Canadian Emergency Business Account (CEBA) loan repayments, just over a third (34.4%) of beneficiary businesses are at risk of being unable to repay their loans on time as of December 31st 2026.
Of the 898,271 SMEs receiving these federal loans (ranging from $40,000 to $60,000 per business) as part of Justin Trudeau’s extensive financial assistance program to combat COVID-19, 309,000 are currently in a precarious financial situation.
Loss of federal funding
Because of their situation, these hundreds of thousands of SMEs facing financial difficulties will see most of them lose out on the generous subsidies (from $10,000 to $20,000) that the Trudeau government provides to SME owners who are able to repay the CEBA loans in full. For loans of $40,000 that are repaid on time, the SME keeps $10,000 in its coffers, and for loans of $60,000, the “donation” increases to $20,000.
- Listen to the economy part with Michel Girard above QUB radio :
Where is the logic?
So if you are one of the SMEs whose financial situation is good enough to repay the loans granted under the Canadian Emergency Business Account by January 18, the Justin Trudeau government will give you a grant of between $10,000 and $20,000. Note that SMEs that are able to refinance with the financial institution that granted them the CEBA loan are offered a repayment extension until March 28th.
However, if you belong to the group of SMEs that are financially unable to repay the mentioned CEBA loans in the short term, we will hold you back even further by withdrawing the relevant federal grants from you. Uh yes! The federal government will therefore punish companies that currently do not have the means to repay their loans.
To be fair and logical to all SMEs that benefit from CEBA, it seems to me that the only essential condition was the payment of the federal subsidy when repaying the loans, and this without setting a deadline, as is currently the case.
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The balance sheet of the emergency account
There are 898,271 Canadian SMEs that have received a loan through CEBA. Specifically, 571,851 companies received a loan of $60,000 each and 326,420 companies received a loan of $40,000.
In total, the Trudeau government has committed a total of $49.2 billion through this program.
It is predicted that 589,265 SME owners will repay their loans on time, benefiting from grants of between US$10,000 and US$20,000 per SME head.
These SMEs will therefore participate in a huge federal donation of $9.6 billion.
Unfortunately, as for SMB owners who can’t repay their loans before the upcoming deadline, they will be leaving about $5 billion in federal grants on the table.
What a huge blow!
