A new survey by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business indicates 12 per cent of businesses are already considering bankruptcy or winding down and anxiety for many small businesses remains high as they head into a third month of severely reduced revenues and no rent relief.

The CFIB said many businesses report the Canada Emergency Commercial Rent Assistance (CECRA) program, which opened last Monday, won’t help them either because their landlord won’t apply or they do not meet the revenue loss criteria of 70 percent.

“It’s June 1st and rent relief is a mess that needs a major clean-up,” said Laura Jones, CFIB’s executive vice-president, in a news release. “Workable rent relief is make or break for over half of the small businesses we surveyed and governments need to make this a top priority yesterday.

“Without resorting to swearing, I can’t emphasize strongly enough how important it is to fix CECRA and put in place a decent safety net for tenants whose landlords won’t use it. This cannot wait until July 1st. We don’t want to see a good chunk of Main Street going down over the ineffective execution of a well-intentioned program.”

The CFIB said it is calling on governments to do three things immediately to address the rent crisis:

  1. Allow tenants to access their share of CECRA support directly through the program or find another means to get money to those that need it. For example, they could expand the Canada Emergency Business Account (CEBA) loans to at least $60,000 (from $40,000) with an increase to the forgivable portion from 25 per cent to 50 per cent (from $10,000 to $30,000). It should also be a priority to ensure that announced expansions to CEBA are implemented immediately as some business owners have been waiting three months to be included in the program (e.g. those with contract workers, personal bank accounts and those that pay by dividends);
  2. Fix CECRA by simplifying the application process, expanding the number of months it covers, and reducing the 70 per cent revenue loss criteria; and 
  3. Put in place a temporary moratorium on commercial evictions for tenants otherwise in good standing with landlords. CFIB has been calling on provinces to do this since March.