Canada Emergency Commercial Rent Assistance (CECRA)

Canada Emergency Commercial Rent Assistance (CECRA) provides relief for small businesses experiencing financial hardship due to COVID‑19. CECRA provides forgivable loans to qualifying commercial property owners, whether they have a mortgage on their property or not. The loans cover 50 per cent of three to six monthly rent payments for eligible small business tenants during April, May, June, July, August and September.

This will be the final extension of this program.

Those who qualified for CECRA based on existing program parameters will be able to apply soon for the additional one month based on having at least a 70 per cent revenue decline for April, May and June, without reassessing whether they continue to have at least a 70 per cent revenue decline in July, August or September. Participation in the one-month extension is voluntary. Both existing applicants to the CECRA and new applicants are able to opt for the September rent reduction.

Existing applicants will need to reapply for the month of September. New applicants will have the choice of applying for the three-month initial period, four months, five months or six months.

Applications Open for CECRA Extension

Effective August 18, businesses who have already submitted a Canada Emergency Commercial Rent Assistance (CECRA) application for the period of April to June can now log back into the online portal and opt-in for an extension of either the month of July, or for July and August. If you have not yet submitted an application for the period of April to June, when submitting an application you will have the option of opting-in for an extension of either the month of July, or July and August, at the same time. No additional documents are required to opt-in for an extension.

The deadline to submit a new application and the dates to opt-in for the September extension are coming soon.