CEBA Loan Repayment Process

As you know, January 18th marks an important milestone regarding your CEBA loan repayment. Despite our best prolonged efforts, I am sorry to report that the Federal Government has given us a hard NO to a CEBA extension.

Due to this decision right now, you should contact your financial institution immediately to discuss repayment and/or refinancing options.

There are three options that you can currently pursue:

• Option 1: Repay in full by January 18^th, 2024. This will allow you to retain the $10 to $20 thousand in loan forgiveness.
• Option 2: If you can’t repay by January 18^th, you have the option of seeking refinancing from a financial institution to repay your CEBA loan, which will allow you to retain the $10 to $20 thousand in loan forgiveness. You must contact a financial institution and apply for the refinancing before January 18th, 2024, and successfully be refinanced by March 28, 2024.
  
  Interest rates and the term of the loan will be set by the financial institution providing the refinancing (from what we are hearing, it will likely be a higher rate than the 5%).
• Option 3: If you cannot repay by January 18^th, 2024 and are not able to refinance because of profitability/creditworthiness of your business, interest will start accruing at 5% annually on the entire loan and you will not be eligible to retain the $10 to $20 thousand in loan forgiveness. The full loan will be due by December 31, 2026. 
  
  *Note: The principal amount of up to $60K, however, can be repaid at any time before December 31, 2026 (in incremental repayments or one lump sum payment). This represents a bigger loan amount to repay, but at a lower interest rate than you could get from your financial institution. 

For further information directly from the Government of Canada:

We will continue to fight for you up until the last hour. We have launched a letter writing campaign to Minister Freeland (send letter here), and continue to have regular meetings with Ministers at every available opportunity to detail why extending CEBA is the best solution for our industry, right now.

Please do not hesitate to reach out to us at members@restaurantscanada.org for any assistance you need.