In his daily address, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced a new rental assistance program for businesses and loosened criteria for the Canada Emergency Business Account.

• The new Canada Emergency Commercial Rent Assistance program will provide rent assistance for businesses during the months of April, May, and June. No further details were given, and the program will have to be established and deployed with the assistance of the provinces, the Prime Minister said.
• The Canada Emergency Business Account, which offered loans of $40,000 to businesses through financial institutions, will have looser criteria.
  • Companies who paid between $20,000 and $1,500,000 in total payroll in 2019 will be eligible to receive a loan. The previous parameters were $50,000-$1,000,000 in payroll.
  • If the balance of the loan is repaid by 2022, $10,000 will be forgiven.

The GNCC and our partners at the Ontario and Canadian Chambers of Commerce have been requesting rent relief and more support for small and new businesses, and we are pleased to see the government has heeded those requests. We will deliver more updates as further details of the rent assistance program are announced.