Canada Emergency Commercial Rent Assistance applications open next week

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the Canada Emergency Commercial Rent Assistance applications open next week.

The Rent Assistance program was initially announced in April as a rent relief program to help businesses who are struggling to pay their landlords due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

On Wednesday, Trudeau said the applications open on May 25. He said the federal and provincial governments will help cover 50% of the rent. Tenants would pay 25%, and he said the landlords would take a 25% hit.

Trudeau said that tenants can use programs like the Canada Emergency Business Account (CEBA) to cover rent as well.

The Canada Emergency Commercial Rent Assistance “offers unsecured, forgivable loans to eligible commercial property owners to: reduce the rent owed by their impacted small business tenants, and meet operating expenses on commercial properties.”

Property owners must offer a minimum of a 75% rent reduction for the months of April, May and June 2020.

“These are challenging times and make sure our economy can bounce back,” said the prime minister.

Earlier today, Finance Minister Bill Morneau and Minister of Innovation, Science, and Industry Navdeep Bains, also announced the opening of the application process for the government’s Large Employer Emergency Financing Facility (LEEFF).

According to the federal government, the program will support Canada’s largest employers, whose needs during the pandemic are not being met through conventional financing. LEEFF will help successful applicants keep their operations going.

Information on the application process is available on the Canada Development Investment Corporation (CDEV) website.

“The objective of this support is to help protect Canadian jobs, help Canadian businesses weather the current economic challenges, and avoid bankruptcies of otherwise viable firms where possible,” states the Government of Canada. “This support will not be used to resolve insolvencies or restructure firms, nor will it provide financing to companies that otherwise have the capacity to manage through the crisis.”