Friday, April 24, 2020

UPDATE | Canada Emergency Rental Assistance for Small Business 

• 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.
• The Ontario government is partnering with the federal government to provide urgent relief for small businesses and landlords affected by the COVID-19 outbreak. The province is committing $241 million through the new Ontario-Canada Emergency Commercial Rent Assistance Program (OCECRA). This will help ensure businesses are ready to reopen once emergency measures are lifted. Learn more. 
• This program will lower rent by 75% for small businesses that have been affected by COVID-19.
• Read the OCC's response here.

• The program will provide forgivable loans to qualifying commercial property owners to cover 50% of three monthly rent payments that are payable by eligible small business tenants who are experiencing financial hardship during April, May, and June. 
• The loans will be forgiven if the mortgaged property owner agrees to reduce the eligible small business tenants’ rent by at least 75% for the three corresponding months under a rent forgiveness 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.

• Businesses paying less than $50,000 per month in rent and who have temporarily ceased operations
• Businesses who have experienced at least a 70% drop in pre-COVID-19 revenues. This support will also be available to non-profit and charitable organizations.
• Support for larger businesses will be announced in the coming days.

• The CECRA  is expected to be operational by mid-May, with commercial property owners lowering the rents of their small business tenant’s payable for the months of April and May, retroactively, and for June.

Additional Updates

• Ontario is delivering a new COVID-19 Action Plan for Vulnerable People to better protect vulnerable populations during the outbreak of COVID-19. Learn more. 
• The Canada Revenue Agency will open the application process for CEWS claims on April 27. To prepare, they have released instructions on what you need to do, a wage subsidy calculator and enhanced eligibility information. Get the information here. 
• On April 21, the OCC's COVID-19 Working Group hosted a roundtable with the Honourable Victor Fedeli, Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade to discuss the business community’s immediate needs and what the province must consider for economic recovery. See on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. 
• On April 22, the OCC’s Workforce Development Council meeting was held and featured a timely presentation from Statistics Canada on the latest labour market data, examining what it means for Ontario and the sectors and groups disproportionately impacted by COVID-19. See on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. 

• Today, we hosted our first ever VIRTUAL Annual General Meeting with our chambers of commerce and boards of trade from across the province. Although we were unable to whether together in Timmins, we are stronger than ever.
• We are thrilled to officially welcome Murad Bhimani, Partner, MNP LLP as the new OCC Chair! We look forward to our work together in the year ahead. Thank you to our now Past Chair, Kim Warburton for her contributions and guidance over the past year.
• We would also like to extend a thank you to our retiring Board members for their many contributions: John Capobianco (Past Chair), Josh Hjartarson, Gord Surgeoner, Eli Fathi, Jill Raycroft, Charla Robinson, Beth Potter and Teresa Piruzza. A warm welcome to our new Board members: Bilal Khan, Aliya Ramji, Cathy Lennon, Lucy Casacia and Michael Klubal. See our current Board of Directors.      

UPCOMING WEBINAR | Information Security and Data Privacy in the age of COVID-19 - April 28

• Christine Ing - Partner, McCarthy Tétrault LLP
• Emad Rizkalla - Founder and CEO, Bluedrop Performance Learning
• Isaac Straley - Chief Information Security Officer, University of Toronto
• Click here to register 

DEADLINE TODAY: Canadian Survey of Business Conditions

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