Owners of small and medium-sized businesses will finally receive their long-awaited carbon pricing refunds before the end of this year, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland announced on Tuesday.
The Finance Department says the federal government will send more than $2.5 billion to about 600,000 Canadian businesses in December.
The payments will return a portion of the carbon price revenue from 2019-20 through 2023-24 to small businesses in jurisdictions where the federal fuel charge applies.
The amount received by a business will depend on the province it operates in and the number of workers it employs.
For example, a business in Ontario with 10 employees can expect to receive $4,010, while a business in Saskatchewan with 499 employees will receive $576,844.
“So these are real, significant sums of money. They’re going to make a big difference to …