Last week, the CRA announced updates to the Canada Emergency Commercial Rent Assistance (CECRA) program.
Updates:
- Extended by one month to help eligible businesses pay rent for September;
- Current CECRA application deadlines also extended to accommodate the September extension;
- This will be the final extension of the program; and
- The government will continue to explore options to support businesses.
Quick Facts:
- Those who qualified for CECRA based on existing program parameters will be able to apply soon for the additional one month based on having at least a 70% revenue decline for April, May and June, without reassessing whether they continue to have at least a 70% revenue decline in July, August or September. Participation in the one-month extension is voluntary. Both existing applicants to the CECRA and new applicants are able to opt for the September rent reduction.
- CECRA provides forgivable loans to qualifying commercial property owners, whether they have a mortgage on their property or not. The loans cover 50% of three to six monthly rent payments for eligible small business tenants during April, May, June, July, August and September.
- The loans will be forgiven if the qualifying property owner agrees to reduce their small business tenants’ rent by at least 75% under a rent reduction agreement, which will include a term not to evict the tenant while the agreement is in place. The small business tenant would cover the remainder, up to 25% of the rent.
- Existing applicants will need to reapply for the month of September. New applicants will have the choice of applying for the three-month initial period, four months, five months or six months.
- Eligible small business tenants are businesses that are paying less than $50,000 per month in gross rent in a given location, with annual revenues of less than $20 million (at the ultimate parent level), and who experienced at least a 70% drop in pre-COVID-19 revenues on average for the period of April, May and June.
Details on the September extension are available on the CMHC website.
Should you have any questions or feedback, please reach out to myself or the team. As always, we are here to help and support you.
