2024-01-15 23:47:57
It’s a race against time for nearly 165,000 Quebec businesses who still have six days to repay the $40,000 federal emergency loan (CUEC) they received during the pandemic.
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Although many entrepreneurs wrongly believed that the deadline would be postponed, the time for repayment has indeed come.
This is the case of Lynda Thauvette, owner of Lynda Entretien since 2008.
Facebook screenshot: Lynda Thauvette
“It’s been a huge stress for months,” she said. “I have already repaid $11,500, I had to restructure the business and I went to seek help from Services Canada for more help, but unfortunately there is nothing planned. that effect.”
In addition, Ms. Thauvette says she was not able to come to an agreement with her financial institution to transfer these amounts into a longer-term loan.
“With the increase in wages, this created costs which created debt and a drop in income,” she explains. “I no longer qualified for a normal loan.”
After the deadline, set for January 18, each company will still be able to repay the loan, but it will not be an easy thing. The “covid loan” will become a regular loan at 5% interest.
“The only option I will have left will be to do business with Easy Financière to avoid having to pay $20,000 more by putting my house as guarantee,” explains the entrepreneur. “That’s over 45,000 businesses at risk of closing, hundreds of thousands of jobs at risk of being lost and increasing unemployment.”
More than 200,000 Canadian SMEs are at risk of closing due to their debt.
Difficult to repay despite everything
Sylvain Cliche, president of the board of directors of Club Ski Beauce, had to take all means to repay the loan.
Facebook screenshot: Sylvain Cliche
“Fortunately, the municipality of Vallée-Jonction gave us a good helping hand,” he explains. “We were able to reach an agreement with our municipality and settle the repayment of the loan.”
Mr. Cliche explains that it was therefore more advantageous for the company to take out a loan with the City considering the fact that the ski resort is part of the municipality.
“We practically missed two years of operations with COVID-19 and it affected us in our recruitment activities,” said Mr. Cliche. “We had to use the grant and spend it quite quickly within two years.”
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