The government changes Canada Emergency Business Account program’s eligibility criteria so more people can open them
Farmers and small business operators who have been using their personal bank accounts are finally eligible for the Canada Emergency Business Account assistance program.
They still have to open business accounts, but the federal government has made it easier to do so, said a spokesperson for federal Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau.
Ottawa announced the change Oct. 26 after months of signaling it was coming.
Initially, CEBA was available only to those who operated from a business account. It provided $40,000 in interest-free loans with $10,000 of that forgivable if paid by the end of 2022.
Read Also
Drones now used to assess wildlife crop damage in Saskatchewan
Wildlife damage in Saskatchewan crops is now assessed by drones and artificial intelligence.
In May, the program was amended to remove payroll expense requirements and at that time farmers thought the requirement for a business account was removed.
But Bibeau’s office said personal accounts aren’t “appropriate vehicles” for CEBA. Instead, the government has modified the eligibility criteria for business accounts so that more people can open them. Essentially, it removed the requirement to have a business account before March 1, 2020.
Bibeau said the change was “an important ask from farmers and will help ensure the financial strength of the thousands of small agricultural businesses across the country.”
The available loans are also expected to increase to $60,000, and the non-repayable portion will double to $20,000.
She said now more than 85,000 farm business will have access to the loans. That would total $5.1 billion.
“That means there is the potential of providing up to $1.7 billion directly to farmers through the forgivable portion of their interest-free loans,” she said.
Grain Growers of Canada president Jeff Nielsen said the government has made this more complicated than necessary and questioned how many farmers could apply for a business account and CEBA in the next few weeks since the deadline is Dec. 31.
He said all businesses are registered with Canada Revenue Agency or have a GST number so it shouldn’t matter if they have a business bank account or not.
There is a pre-screening tool on the CEBA website and the government said potential applicants should use that to determine if they should go ahead and get a business account.
As of Oct. 29, more than 778,000 businesses had applied for loans worth $31.13 billion.
This includes 105,472 in Alberta, worth $4.219 billion, 21,475 in Saskatchewan ($859 million) and 19,103 in Manitoba ($764 million). It’s unknown how many of these are farmers or farm businesses.
