CEBA repayment deadline: Roughly 200,000 small businesses took new loans, CFIB says [Video]

TORONTO – Roughly 200,000 small businesses took on new debt to access the forgivable portion of their pandemic relief loans from the federal government, the Canadian Federation of Independent Business said Tuesday.

Many businesses took private bank loans with high interest rates to pay back enough of their Canada Emergency Business Account loans to qualify for partial loan forgiveness, CFIB president Dan Kelly said Tuesday.

Meeting the new payment obligations will be a challenge for some, he said.

“This has caused a real constraint on businesses,” Kelly said in an interview. “They do so, in so many ways, with a gun to their head because they had no choice in order to access that forgivable portion.”

The federal government provided up to $60,000 in interest-free loans to help businesses and non-profit organizations survive pandemic-related shutdowns and slowdowns.

Businesses that paid off the required portion of their loan by the repayment …