Budget could have included more help for small businesses: CFIB CEO

There was some good news for small businesses in the federal budget but the head of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business said entrepreneurs are still facing big worries and the majority aren’t back to where they were before the pandemic.

In an interview with BNN Bloomberg on Tuesday, Dan Kelly, president and chief executive officer of CFIB, said the “government has to worry about how much firepower it has left, but so do small business owners.”

“One of the pieces in that mix is the fact that they're sitting on a mountain of debt that the business has had to take off just to survive the past three years,” Kelly said.

“A good chunk of that is in the form of a CEBA (Canada Emergency Business Account) loan, those loans are coming due, the government-backed loans delivered by the banks are coming due at the end of 2023, you have to have it paid off unless otherwise you're going to lose the forgivable portion and have to start paying interest.”