Subhead:Approximately 47% of all small and medium sized businesses experienced $60 billion in lost revenue in 2020 over 2019.#
Canadian businesses lost $60 billion in revenues during the infamous lockdowns of 2020. To make matters worse, billions more were wasted on interest-free loans to ineligible entrepreneurs.
“From 2019 to 2020 approximately 47 percent of all small and medium sized businesses, those with annual salary expenses of less than $1.5 million, experienced a drop in gross profits totaling a loss of nearly $60 billion,” Statistics Canada revealed yesterday.
Private sector analysts put losses at twice as much, reported Blacklock’s. In 2021 calculations by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB), losses were tabled at $139 billion.
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Revenues for restaurateurs and hotelkeepers fell as much as 60%, and roughly 25% for retailers, builders and manufacturers.
“This was due in part to successive waves of health restrictions,” said the report Borrowing, Repayments And Bankruptcies By Industry: Results From The Canada Emergency Business Account Program.
Parliament tabled reprieve 16 days into the pandemic, approving $49.2 billion in loans to 898,271 businesses, of which $3.5 billion went to ineligible operators.
“Many of the businesses that applied for and received funding were in client-facing industries,” wrote analysts. It covered expenses including patio expansions, personal protective equipment and other pandemic-related needs.
As of January 26, 2022, the federal government gave $49.2 billion in Canada Emergency Business Account (CEBA) loans to 898,271 businesses.
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The Canada Emergency Business Account (CEBA) gave entrepreneurs interest-free loans to mitigate losses from business closures during the pandemic.
Of 898,271 borrowers only 6,343 filed for bankruptcy, said StatsCan. The agency figure is subject to increase by the December 31, 2026 deadline.
Only 10% of Canadian businesses would file for bankruptcy if they could not keep their doors open, according to a prior CFIB report.
“We need to keep businesses going so they can keep employees on staff,” then-Finance Minister Bill Morneau said at the time. “We can’t know the full impact or the duration of the challenge we’re facing.”
He later acknowledged the feds splurged too much on pandemic aid.
