Understanding Canada Emergency Commercial Rent Assistance (CECRA)
The Canada Emergency Commercial Rent Assistance Program (CECRA) has been announced to provide rent relief for small businesses struggling to pay their landlords due to financial hardship as a result of COVID-19 for the months of April, May and June 2020.
Affected small business tenants who meet the following criteria:
- Pay less than $50,000 per month in rent and;
- Have temporarily ceased operations or have experienced at least a 70% drop in pre-COVID-19 revenues
Non-profits and charities who meet the criteria are also able to apply and benefit from this program.
The program will provide forgivable loans to qualifying commercial property owners to cover 50% of rent payments payable by eligible small business tenants 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 months under a rent forgiveness agreement. The agreement will also contain a pledge to not evict the tenant while the agreement is in place.
Rent allocation under the program would be as follows:
Tenant                                    25%
Property Owner                      25%
Fed. & Prov. Government      50%
How to Apply
Application details are still being sorted out and more information should be available in the coming days. These are the details that have been announced so far:
- The Federal Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. will administer and deliver the program and the program is expected to be operational by mid-May.
- The forgivable loans will be disbursed directly to the mortgage lender.
Property owners are encouraged to provide flexibility to tenants facing hardships in this uncertain time.
If you would like more information or have any questions, feel free to contact us at 780.466.6204, or click here to send us an email.
Thanks to Shelley Ricketts of KWB Chartered Professional Accountants for providing this content.