Windsor-Essex Regional Chamber of Commerce Responds to Canada Emergency Business Account (CEBA) Announcement

Windsor, September 15, 2023 — The Windsor-Essex Regional Chamber of Commerce is pleased by the announcement that the Federal Government is giving businesses an extra year to repay their Canada Emergency Business Account (CEBA) loans.

“While these loans were a lifeline for businesses during the pandemic, many are still recovering from its effects,” said Chamber CEO Rakesh Naidu. “In the wake of COVID-19, many businesses are still dealing with high inflation, labour shortages, and supply chain challenges. The CEBA loan repayment at the end of the year was a challenge that many businesses might not have been able to handle.”

The CEBA loans were created during the pandemic to help businesses and non-profits remain open while dealing with the uncertainty of the global health crisis. Through the CEBA program they were able to obtain up to $60,000 to help them through COVID-19 and the pandemic business restrictions. Almost a million businesses and non-profits obtained assistance totaling nearly $50 billion from the Canadian Government.

Naidu expressed some relief, saying, “While we are pleased about this limited extension, we will continue to push the federal government to extend the qualifying partial loan forgiveness period until the end of 2024. Businesses across Windsor-Essex are still recovering and extending the partial loan forgiveness period is a more effective solution to help them in this uncertain economic period.” Businesses now have until January 18^th to repay their loan to obtain partial loan forgiveness or have until March 28^th to obtain financing to enable them to receive the partial loan forgiveness. If neither option is available to businesses then they must pay the full amount over an extended three-year term (increased from two years) until the end of 2026.