PM Trudeau Announced More Measures to Help Businesses

Mr. Justin Trudeau, the Prime Minister of Canada, has announced some more key measures to help the businesses in Canada which are affected by the coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis. He also announced to expand eligibility of loan and assistance with commercial rent.

The previously announced loan program, which offers businesses up to $40,000 in a government backed loan, will now be available to businesses with payrolls worth between $20,000 and $1.5 million. Previously, the interest free loan was for those with payrolls worth between $50,000 and $1 million. However, up to $10,000 of the loan is non-repayable.

PM Justin Trudeau said that since the loan program opened for applications a week ago, the numbers of 195,000 loans in the approx amount of $7.5 billion have been approved.

He also announced about a plan under which the government will help the small enterprise or businesses to pay commercial rents for April, May and June. As rent issues fall under provincial jurisdiction, so plan will be worked out with the premiers.

Many business groups have praised these announced measures. Meanwhile, the Canadian Chamber of Commerce said rent is one of the biggest fixed costs for businesses and the ability to pay it is a factor to determine whether a firm can survive or not. Also, the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) said rental costs should be reduced or removed, not just staved off.

Mr. Trudeau discussed with the premiers on an agenda of re-opening the economy in Canada. But he warned in his statement “It would be absolutely disastrous for us to open up too early or too quickly and have another wave hit us that could be just as bad as this one, and find ourselves in a situation of having to go back into quarantine the way we are right now and have everything we’ve done these past weeks be for nothing.”

For reopening of the Canada-U.S border, Mr. Justin Trudeau said that it is too early to reopen the Canada-U.S border. Mr. Donald Trump, the President of US, told him that he would like to see the border reopening as soon as possible.