Break or burden: Que. businesses taking loans to pay back CEBA by deadline
Thursday is the deadline for businesses to pay back the Canada Emergency Business Account (CEBA) loans if they want to take care of federal loan forgiveness.
The deadline has some local businesses scrambling to pay it off, including taking out other loans to pay for this one.
At Backbone Bouldering Centre in Bromont, about an hour southeast of Montreal, paying their CEBA loan back was an uphill climb.
"We paid it back, but with a new loan from our bank," said manager Frederique Marseille.
Those who didn't pay back $40,000 of the $60,000 loan by today were inelligble to get back the $20,000 of loan forgiveness and pay no interest.
Backbone management borrowed from a bank to get that forgiveness, but now have to pay a higher interest rate.
"They had to offer us a new loan, with any interest rate, with any kind of solution, and we just had to sign," said Marseille. "We paid a loan with a worse loan."
Backbone Climbing Centre manager Frederique Marseille.
Schreter's Clothing on Saint Laurent Boulevard in Montreal planned for year to meet the deadline.
"I paid back about 10 days ago," said owner Steve Schreter.
Around 900,000 businesses took advantage of the program and those that didn't pay the $40,000 portion of the loan back will now have to pay the loan in full at five per cent interest over three years.
Schreter said that wasn't an option.
"It had to come from different places, unfortunately, business hasn't been that great since the pandemic," he said.
The CEBA deadline has been pushed back twice, and this week Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said that it would not be pushed again.
"We understand that things — even as the economy has bounced back from COVID — continue to be challenging, which is why we extended, twice, the repayment deadline for the CEBA loans," said Trudeau.
"But we are now far enough from the pandemic that we do have to wrap up pandemic programs," Trudeau said. "Pandemic supports, we all know, had to end at one point."
At Backbone, Marseille said what was billed as a break has turned into a burden.
"That's debt on debt on debt, so it was never a gift from the government to help us during the pandemic," she said.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
DEVELOPING Slovakia's populist prime minister shot in assassination attempt, shocking Europe before elections
The Slovak defence minister says doctors are fighting for the life of the country's prime minister, who was shot multiple times after a political event Wednesday afternoon.
Transport Canada's UFO 'lead' planned to meet with U.S. intel officials, called info requests a 'wild goose chase'
Canada's transportation department had a UFO 'lead' who tried to 'quell' media interest and planned to meet with U.S. intelligence officials.
'Very expensive lunch': Sask. driver handed a cell phone ticket for using points app in McDonald's drive-thru
A warning from a Saskatoon driver about using your fast-food app while in the drive-thru line — a trip to get some free lunch cost him a lot more than he bargained for.
'The Fly' has become notorious in France after a brazen escape. What's his criminal history?
A prisoner nicknamed “The Fly” has become notorious in France overnight after a daring and bloody escape from a prison convoy in Normandy that left two guards dead.
BREAKING Ontario's 'crypto king' Aiden Pleterski arrested
Aiden Pleterski, the self-proclaimed 'crypto king' from Whitby, Ont., has been arrested in Durham Region after allegedly running a Ponzi scheme worth more than $40 million.
BREAKING Barge hits a bridge in Texas, damaging the structure and causing an oil spill
A barge slammed into a bridge pillar in Galveston, Texas, on Wednesday, spilling oil into surrounding waters and closing the only road to a smaller and separate island that is home to a university, officials said. There were no immediate reports of injuries.
Person responsible for 1996 drugging of 'Titanic' crew likely not a local: Halifax police
Halifax Regional Police believe a non-resident could be responsible for the infamous drugging of numerous crew members of the 'Titanic' movie with a hallucinogenic in 1996.
Latest updates on the biggest wildfires burning in Canada
Thousands of people in Western Canada remain displaced from their homes as wildfires threaten their communities, triggering evacuation orders and alerts.
OPINION If you think you can’t focus for long, you’re right: Sandee LaMotte
Regaining your focus requires you to be mindful of how you are using technology -- a daunting task if you consider the average American spends at least 10 hours a day on screens.