Vancouver chocolatier among those in need of pandemic loan extensions

Posted July 31, 2023 10:40 pm.
Last Updated August 1, 2023 7:49 am.
A Vancouver chocolate shop owner is among thousands of small business owners from B.C. and across Canada asking the federal government for more time to pay back their pandemic loans.
Monique Poncelet with Daniel Chocolates says her shop’s numbers definitely went down when they were closed due to COVID-19 lockdowns. She tells CityNews they didn’t come back when they reopened either.
“Now that it’s supposed to be that COVID is finished, the consequences of COVID are still there — very much so,” she said. “People have changed their way to buy now with the interest rate so high.
“People are really, really careful about their expenses, and chocolate is very discretionary.”

Monique Poncelet with Daniel Chocolates says she is among over 30,000 small business owners from B.C. and across Canada asking the federal government for more time to pay back their pandemic loans. (Sarah Chew, CityNews Image)
The current repayment deadline for the Canada Emergency Business Account (CEBA) is Dec. 31, 2023. Poncelet is one of the business owners who signed a petition from the Canadian Federation of Independent Business asking for the repayment deadline to be extended at least by a year.
She says she borrowed $60,000 from the government to cover her rent for two locations, but she’d rather put the money toward her bank loans — loans with interest rates that have almost doubled.
A portion of the CEBA loans — $20,000 — is forgivable by the federal government if the money is repaid by Dec. 31, 2023. If not, the full amount is due with five per cent interest tacked on.
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The CFIB’s petition to the federal government now has the signatures of more than 30,000 business owners.
It is asking the deadline be moved to the end of December 2025, or at least the end of 2024.
CFIB Provincial Affairs Director for Alberta and B.C. Annie Dormuth says only 16 per cent of small businesses in B.C. have said they’ll be able to repay the loan.
“Some businesses say they won’t be able to survive, or they would have to take out additional loans or lines of credit to pay back this loan.”
Dormuth says businesses are finding themselves in this situation despite the government extending the deadline by a year in 2022. She says not all businesses have been able to bounce back because of inflation, labour shortages, wildfires, and other circumstances.
“Other challenges in the form of an ongoing strike, which has hampered a lot of businesses’ ability to keep contracts or keep up operations because they can’t get their products to and from,” she said.
The CFIB says a joint letter signed by more than 250 business groups was sent to Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland last week, urging the government to consider an extension. CityNews has reached out to Freeland’s office for comment on the matter.
B.C. Minister of Jobs, Economic Development and Innovation Brenda Bailey addressed the extension request at a news conference on June 26.
“I have been advocating that the loans from the federal government are extended,” she said.
“I wrote a letter to Minister Ng in this regard and I’ve also spoken to her about it on the telephone twice. It’s important.”
Whether or not a second extension on pandemic loans will happen is up in the air — but over the next five months before the repayment deadline, Poncelet encourages the public to shop local.
“They still have to pay the rent, they pay high tax, they pay high salary, so please help them.”
With files from Cormac Mac Sweeney and Hana Mae Nassar