Canada Emergency Business Account

Canada Emergency Business Account aka CEBA aka Helicopter Money for Small Businesses.

The CEBA program offered interest-free loans of up to $60,000 to small businesses and not-for-profits.
For eligible CEBA borrowers in good standing, repaying the balance of the loan on or before December 31, 2023 will result in loan forgiveness of up to 33 percent (up to $20,000).

Source: https://ceba-cuec.ca

The original date for repayment was December 31, 2022, but

The Government of Canada has extended the December 31, 2022 repayment date to December 31, 2023 for CEBA loan holders.

Kicking the can down the road? Oh yeah!

I know a business owner who applied for CEBA, knowing/hoping he would not need to pay it back.
He was hoping that the loan would be forgiven completely, knowing he would not be able to pay it back.
How many businesses are in the same situation?
How many don’t have those extra $30-$40k to pay back?
No idea.

How much did the Government of Canada lend to small businesses?
It seems they don’t know themselves, because I see 2 “slightly” different numbers on the website:

Same website, same dates, but a difference of $0.8 billion (with a B, like Bananas 😮 ).
Did they forget to update the numbers, or did nearly $1B just slip away into the void?

A nice “surprise” is awaiting small businesses in 2024.

• Will the government force them to pay back and start charging interest? This will crash lots of marginally profitable businesses.
• Or will it start forgiving these loans completely?
  As of August 2022, the federal debt is around $1.14 trillion (with a T, like Trudeau 😀 ). So who gives a shit about some pathetic $49B?

Anyway, I’m sure the government can fix that.


P.S.: Smart owners of profitable companies could take $60k, keep it to themselves for almost 4 years (2020-2023), collect interest (or even invest and make some fat gains), and return $40k, pocketing a nice $20k gift (plus interest/gains) from the Canadian Government.