All thirteen premiers are calling on Ottawa for a full one-year extension to the Canada Emergency Business Account (CEBA) loan deadline—a move supported by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB).

A CFIB news release states that Ottawa’s announcement of a one-year extension to the CEBA loan deadline was misleading and did not apply to the most immediate and critical deadline small businesses are facing. CFIB says that in under three months, small business owners will lose the forgivable portion of the CEBA loan unless they have the money to repay by January 18th of next year.  This would increase their total debt by up to 50%.

Nearly 50,000 petitions from small business owners are asking the federal government to reconsider its approach. CFIB adds that ideally, the deadline would be moved until December 31, 2024.

The federal government extended the CEBA repayment deadline last year, and this extension would be a second one. The current CEBA repayment deadline is December 31st. If paid by then, one-third of the loan will be forgiven. If not, the remaining debt would be converted to a two-year loan at five percent interest.