Skeena-Bulkley Valley MP Taylor Bachrach says he will continue to fight for small businesses as Ottawa continues to fall short.
It comes after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced an extension to the repayment deadline for Canada Emergency Business Account loans.
Introduced in April of 2020, the program offered businesses forced to limit or close operations during the pandemic government-backed, interest-free loans.
Recipients had until December 31st to pay back their loans, but as of July, only 10 percent of loans had been fully repaid.
With many businesses at risk of collapsing, Bachrach had been pressuring Ottawa to extend the deadline for months.
Yesterday’s entension gives recipients until the end of 2025 to pay back loans to avoid a five-percent interest rate.
But, it only pushed the deadline to qualify for partial loan forgiveness to January 18th, 2024, an extension of just 19 days.
Bachrach says that losing access to the forgiveable portion of their loans will put the futures of 250,000 Canadian businesses at risk.
He says he will continue to push for an extension to that date.
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