Week two survey results
Thanks to your help, we have received nearly
700 responses
since the COVID-19 and low oil prices business impact survey went live! View respondent insights to date by clicking the link below.
This survey closes April 26th, so please continue to share by copying and pasting the link below (copying your unique URL from your browser will break the link).
Canada Emergency Commercial Rent Assistance for small businesses
Today, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau
announced
that the federal government has reached an agreement in principle with all provinces and territories to implement the Canada Emergency Commercial Rent Assistance (CECRA) for small businesses. This program will lower rent by 75 per cent for small businesses that have been affected by COVID-19.
The Alberta Government also issued a
release outlining details of
the program.
- CECRA will provide a loan retroactive to April 1 to qualified commercial property owners supporting 50 per cent of rent for April, May, and June of this year.
- The loan will be forgivable if the property owner and tenant come to a rent forgiveness agreement that lowers the eligible small business’s rent by 75 per cent for the three months and includes a moratorium on eviction.
- The program is anticipated to be running by mid-May and will be administered by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC).
- Qualifying small businesses will be required to:
- pay less than $50,000 in rent
- have been asked to close, or near-close their operations due to COVID-19
- be experiencing at least a 70 per cent decrease in revenues
- CECRA will also be available to non-profit and charitable organizations.
- The province expects to commit up to $67 million, with the remaining and majority of costs being covered by the federal government.
$1 billion program to create 5,300 jobs
The
Site Rehabilitation Program
– mainly funded by the federal government’s COVID-19 Economic Response Plan – will provide grants to oilfield service contractors to perform well, pipeline, and oil and gas site reclamation work. Starting now, the program is expected to create about 5,300 direct jobs and lead to the cleanup of thousands of sites.
Mass gathering restriction will remain in Alberta for summer:
Hinshaw
Alberta’s chief medical officer of health said yesterday that gathering restrictions currently in place, banning groups of 15 or more, also apply to all one-time or annual summer events, including arts and culture festivals, agricultural fairs and rodeos, major sporting championships and industry conferences.
