The May 25 executive committee meeting marked a new milestone in the City’s COVID-19 recovery plan, and Mayor Greg Dionne says it’s going to continue, barring major setbacks.

For the first time since April 6, city council did not meet via teleconference. Instead, Dionne and seven of the city’s eight city councillors were all in attendance at City Hall. That’s going to be the trend for the foreseeable future, after technological difficulties slowed down previous meetings.

“I loved it, and look at how we got debate today,” Dionne said when asked about the new setup. “Totally different than (over the phone). We argued on the phone. We got disconnected, and then we got mad at each other and we both look like fools.”

Putting an end to teleconference meetings meant there were frequently more than 10 people in the council chamber. The city clerk and city manager also attended the entire meeting, as did a contractor overseeing the tech side of things.

Council members were forced to sit in unfamiliar spots to ensure proper social distancing, and local media were only allowed to observe from the City Hall foyer. City employees were allowed to enter to make presentations. The speaker’s podium, which typically sits at the centre of the gallery, was directly in front of the door to take advantage of as much space as possible.

When asked about whether the city was allowed to have more than 10 people inside council chambers at one time, Dionne said there were no issues since everyone was properly spaced out. He said they’re treating council like a business, which can allow more than 10 customers inside provided they have enough space to keep at least six feet apart.

“That 10 person (cap) is for you and me barbecuing in my backyard, not work,” he explained. “I have 100 people in this building. I don’t have 10. I have 100.

“We are a workplace, and if you look at how we set up council, we are all six feet apart. We could actually have 17 people in there because of the six feet separation.”

There are no plans to allow up to 17 people inside the chamber. Dionne said they plan to stay on the safe side, and avoid having that many people in one place. Still, he argued that he and the seven councillors who attended felt safe.

Barring a change of direction from the Saskatchewan Health Authority, Dionne said the new meeting protocol was here to stay.

“It could still sit like that in a year from now,” he said. “Nobody knows. Everyone says, ‘well, until the (vaccine) is found, this is how it’s going to be.’ Well, now they don’t think they’ll even have a clue to start testing (a vaccine) until the fall, so I’ve prepared this council chamber for a year from now and that’s how it’s set up, and we’re safe. As you can tell, eight of us showed up thinking we’re safe.”

Ward 1 Coun. Charlene Miller was the lone city councillor who did not attend the last meeting. When contacted on Friday, Miller said she didn’t feel it was safe to begin meetings, and argued city council should defer to the Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) and keep council meetings to under 10 people.

Miller works at Victoria Hospital, and because of that has to be very careful about who she comes in contact with. She asked for a number to dial in to the last meeting meeting, and was told teleconference meetings would no longer happen.

“I didn’t feel comfortable going into the chamber, because then there’s another person who comes into the room, which is number 13,” Miller said during an interview on Friday. “That is totally against what our province and the SHA is telling us.

“I was taken aback when I got the word that, no, I cannot have the teleconferencing number because we’re no longer doing it.”

Miller acknowledged that the teleconferencing system made it tough for council to conduct its business. She said there were frequent echoes over the phone lines, which made it hard to speak and difficult to hear.

Despite that, she’d like to see city council meetings move to a different platform, like Zoom, rather than return to in-person meetings.

Miller said she’s sent another email requesting that teleconference meetings be reinstated. She hasn’t heard back yet, and has yet to decide whether she’ll attend the next meeting on June 1 if that request gets denied.

“I really don’t want to waste PPE (personal protective equipment) going into a city council meeting, but it can’t be guaranteed how many people are going to be in that room at one time,” she said. “As a health care worker, I cannot disobey the rules. Those rules are put in place to protect our community and all of us.”

Workplaces are exempt from the restrictions on indoor and outdoor gatherings, according to the SHA’s general workplace guidelines. However, individuals are still expected to maintain at least two meters of distance. If that’s not possible, the SHA recommends individuals self-monitor their personal health, or work under the supervision of Infection, Prevention and Control or Occupational Health and Safety staff.

The guidelines also encourage workplaces to conduct business remotely, whenever possible, and alter or postpone operations if necessary.

Indoor and outdoor gatherings are currently capped at 10 people. That cap will expand to 15 for indoor gatherings and 30 for outdoor gatherings after hitting phase three of the Reopen Saskatchewan Plan. The target date for phase three is June 8.

The next Prince Albert city council meeting is scheduled for June 1 in the city council chamber. Start time is 5 p.m.

The City of Prince Albert expects to lose more than $750,000 if long-term COVID-19 restrictions aren’t lifted by the end of 2020.

Those numbers were included in an updated financial forecast conducted on May 13 and released on Thursday. City officials estimate Prince Albert will lose $164,000 from March to June, $22,785 from July to September, and $568,849 from October to September. All predictions assume city facilities will not be allowed to open until 2020.

City Finance Director Cheryl Tkachuk will give additional details about those numbers at the next city council meeting. She said there is still a lot of uncertainty in the projections since no one knows how long the pandemic will last, or how long city facilities will remain closed. Some outdoor facilities, like the Kinsmen Water Park, could remain closed even if restrictions are lifted.

“It’s so fluid,” Tkachuk said during an interview on Thursday. “Things are changing week to week. We’re hoping to have another updated (forecast) coming soon, especially over the next month, because as things start opening up we’re going to have to start re-evaluating and seeing where some of those things might be.”

Parking revenue is the biggest undetermined number. The City’s no-ticket policy ended on May 19, but Tkachuk said they’ve haven’t factored any parking meter or ticket revenue into the forecast.

Property tax numbers are also a problem. The City extended the payment deadline from June 30 to September 30 at a special meeting on April 8. They won’t know how many people took advantage of that option until after the original June deadline.

There is also a lot of uncertainty over when city facilities will be allowed to open. The City anticipates losing $350,000 alone if they have to keep the Alfred Jenkins Field House closed through December. Most of the projected $563,849 fourth quarter loss is due to closing the Alfred Jenkins, the E.A. Rawlinson Centre, the Dave Steuart Arena, Kinsmen Arena and the Art Hauser Centre.

The city has saved money by not having staff there, that hasn’t been enough to offset the lost revenue. Some outdoor facilities, like Kinsmen Water Park, may stay closed even if restrictions are lifted. Tkachuck said it simply won’t be feasible to open them for a few weeks.

Prince Albert city council has turned to short-term borrowing as a way to cover the losses. On April 19, they passed third reading of a bylaw that increases the City’s line of credit by $10-million. It also gives the financial department permission to secure a $10-million increase in maximum allowable debt with the Saskatchewan Municipal Board (SMB).

Despite those efforts, Mayor Greg Dionne said that may not be enough to cover all the costs. He thanked the provincial government for providing $5.1-million for infrastructure projects through the Municipal Economic Enhancement Program (MEEP), but said the federal government needs to step in and help if cities are going to survive.

“All I’m asking from the federal government, and I’m going to emphasize this to the province on our conference call next Tuesday, is to double the Gas Tax (funding),” Dionne said. “They did that the year before…. I think that would help us turn the corner.”

Doubling the Gas Tax payments would provide the City with $4-million instead of the usual $2-million. Dionne it’s been a long-standing and successful program that every municipality is a part of, which would make it easier to transfer funds to the province.

The Federation of Canadian Municipalities called on Ottawa to provide at least $10-billin in emergency aid more than a month ago. They upped that request to $15-billion on April 23.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he understands municipalities are seeing massive drops in revenue, but added that he also wants to hear solutions from the provinces, since cities are a provincial responsibility.

Like Tkachuk, Dionne said there is still a large amount of uncertainty in the City’s financial update. He expects to see another report when the provincial government moves to phase three of its five-phase Reopen Saskatchewan Plan. The target date for phase three is June 8.

“It will tell us, if our facilities are still closed, what we can open reasonably and what we can’t open,” he said. “The other decision that has to be made as we get later in the season, if come August they say, ‘okay pools can reopen,’ we would not be reopening our pool. I’m talking the Kinsmen. We’d open the Frank Dunn, the indoor pools, but the outdoor facilities we would not open because financially that just does not make sense for one month. It would be too costly and it would add to our debt.”

Dionne also asked residents to stay safe, be patient and be respectful while council considers all the available options.

The City of Prince Albert will start looking for federal or provincial funding before deciding which flood prevention measures they’ll install along the North Saskatchewan River.

Council spent roughly 20 minutes debating the decision on Tuesday after hearing a report on the 2019-2020 Flood Mapping Study during Monday’s executive committee meeting.

Mayor Greg Dionne said they have several options at their disposal thanks to the updated data, but it will all depend on funding. Those options include building berms near city-owned properties like the Water Treatment Plant, while using temporary water-filled barriers in residential areas.

The updated study shows roughly 1,600 properties would be affected by a 1:500 year flood, a significant departure from older studies, which showed roughly 2,400.

“Today we have current information,” he said. “That’s going to relieve almost 800 people who were worried about being in the flood plain.

“I always say to anyone who’s bringing me data, ‘it’s got to be current.’ The data we had … was 10 years old.”

City officials plan to apply for funding immediately. Planning and development director Craig Guidinger said programs to help cities deal with flooding are already in place, and shouldn’t be affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Typically the intake for those programs is in October, so it depends on how (quick) we can get our information together,” Guidinger said after Monday’s meeting. “It’s usually five-year programs and I know they’ll be in place for the next few years.

“(COVID-19) certainly won’t delay my efforts.”

Guidinger said he’s fielded plenty of calls from contractors and real estate agents wondering how the City’s flood mitigation plans will affect residential development in potential flood areas. At this point, he said the City has no plans to add or change zoning bylaws, and is still approving building permits.

The flood mapping study from Stantec offered several mitigation options to prevent property damage due to flooding. Among them were bylaws that would give the City first right of refusal on flood zone properties put up for sale. That would allow them to redevelop the area into a recreation hub, a nature reserve or wetlands.

Those suggestions generated little discussion during Monday’s meeting. Instead, city council focused on berms and water-filled barriers as the best way to protect the area.

At least one city councillor wasn’t convinced berms were the best way to go. Ward 4 Coun. Don Cody said council should focus on using water-filled barriers instead, and lobby provincial organizations like the Water Security Agency to manage ice-jams on the North Saskatchewan River more effectively.

“That’s the kind of thing I think we need to be careful of each year,” Cody said during the meeting. “We didn’t have much snow here. We didn’t have much water. The water came shooting down, and of course the ice made it a problem. There’s no question about that.”

Cody praised the flood mapping study for its thoroughness, but added that he still disagrees with a provincial government requirement that all cities recognize the 1:500 flood plain with their legislation.

Ward 4 is located in the East Flat, which is the second most vulnerable area of Prince Albert, according to the Stantec study. An 1:200 year flood would affect an estimated 18 properties, while a 1:500 flood would affect an estimated 82 properties.

The West Flat is the most vulnerable area of the city. It begins flooding at 1:75 year flood levels, when 13 properties would be affected. At 1:500 year levels, an estimated 378 properties would be flooded in the West Flat.

The Hazeldell area is Prince Albert’s third most vulnerable. An estimated 18 properties would be affected in a 1:200 year flood. That number jumps to 82 properties for a 1:500 year flood.

Prince Albert has experienced high-water flood marks in 1915, 1974, 1980 and 2013, which were used in Stantec’s estimations. The 1915 flood is considered to be a 1:200 year flood event. That year, waters from the North Saskatchewan River reached 8.5 metres above normal levels. The City also flooded in 1875 due to ice jams.

The City of Prince Albert’s annual spring auction will go ahead online instead of in-person due to COVID-19 restrictions on public gatherings.

Buyers will be able to place their bids online through McDougall Auctions starting on June 17, instead of bidding on-site. City fleet manager Robert Snowden said it’s the best option available since provincial restrictions won’t be lifted in time to hold a regular event.

“Normally, the crowds get fairly large, and with a public auction we can’t have social distancing,” Snowden explained. “Online is the next best thing, so that’s what we’re going to do. (It) keeps contact minimal with the public, and helps stop the spread of COVID-19.”

The auction was originally scheduled for May 9, a date city administrators picked roughly six months in advance. However, those plans stalled after the pandemic started to spread.

“With COVID-19 happening we cancelled the whole auction and waited to see when things would start normalizing a little bit,” Snowden said. “Since they are starting to open a few things up right now, we decided to have our sale on June 17.”

The auction allows buyers to bid on used, obsolete or surplus items from various City of Prince Albert departments. The list includes used vehicles and equipment the City no longer needs, or can no longer acquire parts for, plus lost bicycles that have not been claimed, computer parts, office equipment and police recovered items.

A complete list of items is available at mcdougallbay.com. Snowden said they would get photos of the sale items online as soon as possible. Viewing and pickup times will also be posted on the McDougall’s Auction website.

While the annual spring auction will go ahead, the same can’t be said for garage and yard sales. They are not named as allowable businesses under the Reopen Saskatchewan Plan, since provincial government does not consider them critical public services.

A motion to suspend water shutoffs at properties where owners have not allowed the city to switch out old water meters was voted down by a 6-3 margin on Tuesday.

The city has already stopped shutting off water for unpaid utility bills, but continued the practice on properties who have not set up appointments to have their water meters changed. Since March 20, the City has shut off the water at six properties for not complying with the water meter replacement program.

There are still 158 properties in the city who have yet to set up the appointments, and Mayor Greg Dionne said they’ve had plenty of time to contact the city.

“To me, shutting water off to those homes is totally different than people who can’t afford their bill,” Dionne said following Tuesday’s council meeting. “It doesn’t cost them a dime. They’ve just got to open the door.”

“This is totally different than COVID,” he added. “We’ve made every effort to install them. They leave us with no choice. You don’t want to do it during COVID-19, but it’s not related to COVID-19.”

Roughly one-third of those 158 properties were commercial, according to city data from one month ago. Dionne said he’d be contacting the property owners immediately to find out what the problem was.

“We should have no tolerance for commercial (properties),” he said afterwards. “There’s no reason why we can’t go in and change the meter.”

Ward 2 Coun. Terra Lennox-Zepp brought forward the motion at Tuesday’s meeting. She said some people may be socially isolating, and don’t want to set up an appointment at this time. She added that it was important for residents to have running water during the pandemic, and said she hasn’t heard of any significant disadvantages to keeping the water running.

“If somebody has a downside, I really need to hear it,” she said during the meeting. “I want to know because so far I’ve just heard that we need to continue with this program because we put money and energy into (it), which is all true. But, to just suspend the shutoffs right now has no downside because we get to continue with the new program, as we are right now. We get to continue with monthly billing, as we are right now.”

Lennox-Zepp urged city administration to try sending letters to residents, instead of making phone calls or tagging doors.

Private contractor CORIX Water Products has set up a call centre to set up water meter appointments. Under the terms of that contract they have to call property owners at least three times before turning the problem over to the City.

Prince Albert’s financial services director, Cheryl Tkachuck, said they’re satisfied CORIX is doing a good job of contacting residents and setting up appointments. She’s not sure why there are problems with the remaining 158 properties.

“I think for the most part, people are wanting to do it, but for whatever reason, some are making it difficult,” she said.

While the majority of the 158 properties are residential or commercial, Tkachuck said the list also includes a few government properties, like schools. She suspects the COVID-19 pandemic has made it difficult for CORIX to get in touch with the right people.

The City first started replacing water meters in Prince Albert roughly 13 months ago. Since then, property owners at 11,440 sites have complied. The City of Prince Albert has invested more than $4.8-million in this project, which will allow city employees to read water meters without entering the property. It will also allow the city to send out utility bills monthly instead of every three months.

Tkachuck said they originally planned to have all meters in place by the end of December. They have not set a new deadline for getting all 158 properties to comply, but added they’re still going to keep pushing.

“At some point, we’re going to have to pull the plug and say, ‘gotta do it,’” she explained.

Couns. Evert Botha and Charlene Miller were the only two other councillors to support Lennox-Zepp’s motion. Couns. Dennis Ogrodnick, Dennis Nowoselsky, Don Cody, Ted Zurakowski and Blake Edwards all voted against stopping water shutoffs. Edwards, said he would even support issuing $2,000 fines to property owners who refused to have their meter changed.

Tuesday’s water shutoff debate was marred by poor phone connections, which inhibited council’s ability to discuss the issue.

After Lennox-Zepp made a series of queries about the 158 properties in question, Dionne ruled that council could not ask administration questions at this time.

Dionne said administration already answered questions about the project during the Inquiries phase of the meeting, and declined to allow more questioning. Lennox-Zepp’s motion was the second last item discussed at the meeting.

However, Dionne’s mic cut out during the debate, preventing listeners in the City Hall foyer from hearing his response. Lennox-Zepp, who was one of three councillors appearing by phone due to COVID-19 restrictions, didn’t hear it either, forcing council to detour from the water meter debate to discuss meeting rules of order.

Lennox-Zepp said she respected the mayor’s decision, but argued her questions were important to the debate, and city administrators should have been allowed to answer them.

“It’s important that we be able to hear from administration for reasonable questions, and I think this is a reasonable question,” she said. “(I’m) asking administration ‘what is the impact if this motion passes?’ They might know something that we haven’t talked about yet, and that is not a question I asked in inquires because I thought it was more appropriately asked in this discussion.”

When asked to repeat his ruling, Dionne said the financial director had already answered “a pile of questions” from council during the inquiries section, and he assumed all questions were answered then. He added that he did not want council to rehash issues they already debated.

Story updated on Friday, May 22 at 5:30 p.m. to include the number of water shutoffs since March 20.

Prince Albert city council voted to table a discussion surrounding $5.1 million in infrastructure projects after disagreements over a $200,000 project in the Old City Yards.

The provincial government handed out the $5.1 million to help boost municipal infrastructure projects in Prince Albert, but city council still needs to submit a list of approved projects. That debate ground to a halt of Tuesday after councillors expressed concerns about spending money in a location the City may not use for much longer.

The project called for a new Storage Cover-All Building at the Old City Yards after the previous one was declared past the point of repair in 2016. The building is considered unsafe and unstable, mainly due to roof damage in four different areas, and will be condemned on Oct. 1.

That will cause a “critical shortage of covered space” for the Parks Department and Transportation Sign Shop, according to a report filed by City Manager Jim Toye. However, some councillors say it’s not worth it to rebuild in that part of Prince Albert.

“I’d be leery of putting some investment down there when I think we want to be out of that location and divest ourselves of that area,” said Ward 8 Coun. Ted Zurakowski, the project’s most vocal opponent.

“We are wanting to get out of the hold city yards, and here is an opportunity to do so,” added Ward 4 Coun. Don Cody. “I just don’t think that going ahead with (a) $200,000 (project), and then maybe moving it, is money well spent.”

Cody added that he supported spending money on the building, but wanted it in a different location on the hill.

Mayor Greg Dionne also opposed the project, saying it didn’t make sense to build in an area they were getting out of.

The City has plans to build a new $8.8-million Municipal Service Centre (MSC) sometime in the future, but council has not approved the necessary funding.

Public Works Director Wes Hicks said they understand council wants to move operations to a new area, but administration has worries about centralizing its operations.

“Administration has been discussing during this COVID-19 pandemic the concern around putting all our eggs in one basket,” Hicks told council. “We’ve discovered that putting everybody in one location is very, very bad for the operations. If we had someone get sick up there, we’re literally shut down. We have no options.”

“If our fleet group gets shut down, we don’t have any other shops. No lifts or anything,” he added. “We’ve lost another building at the old yards. We’re nowhere close to moving into any new facilities in the foreseeable future. The thought was to have at least one cover-all (building) in the old yard.”

Hicks said the Cover-all could be moved in five or 10 years, but public works needs a new building in place before winter.

With council facing questions over how many changes they could make to the project list after submitting it to the government, Mayor Greg Dionne suggested council table the motion. It will be back up for discussion at the next executive committee meeting on May 25.

The $200,000 Storage Cover-All Building was one of 11 projects up for approval at Monday’s meeting. Other projects include the $2.25-million Marquis Road West Extension, $1.4-million for pavement upgrades and $500,000 for sidewalk repairs.

The Community Services Department and Prince Albert Historical Society will start outlining a plan to create a recreation development or historic site at La Colle Falls hydroelectric dam and the nearby city-owned property.

Ward 5 Coun. Dennis Ogrodnick was responsible for bringing the motion forward during Tuesday’s city council meeting. He said there’s no guarantee the City will develop the property, but argued it’s worth looking into considering the site’s historical significance.

“There are so many stories about La Colle Falls and so much history,” Ogrodnick said during the meeting. “I think it’s something that has the potential to become a tourist attraction site within our economic region.”

The R.M. of Garden River has already created plans for a recreation area in a nearby area. They tried to purchase the property in May 2019, and lease it on August 2019. But were turned down by city council, most recently on April 20

Ogrodnick was one of the most vocal councillors to oppose leasing the property at that last meeting. He argued that the La Colle Falls project was one of the most historic developments in Prince Albert history. He said it wasn’t right to sell or lease that property, and he stuck by those arguments again on Tuesday.

“It’s not saying that we’re going to invest right away in developing this, but this is part of our history,” he said.

There were some minor concerns about a potential development, but council voted unanimously in favour of asking for a development report. Ward 2 Coun. Terra Lennox-Zepp said she’d like to know what the City was liable for, should they create a recreation area, but added she was still interested in seeing what the Historical Society could create.

Ward 6 Coun. Blake Edwards also spoke in favour of the project. He said creating plans for future tourist attraction or historical site was long overdue.

“I think there are a lot of people who don’t know enough about what occurred and what brought up this event,” he said on Tuesday. “It’s important to Prince Albert, and I think it’s time that we had a report come forward.”

The RM of Garden River wanted to use the city-owned land to build road access to their own property, where they hoped to develop a day park.

The 20-acre city-owned parcel has an assessment value of around $200, according to the RM, a total so low the City doesn’t pay property taxes on it. Garden River reeve Ryan Scragg said that’s because the property sits on a flood plain, and it’s dense brush makes it unsuitable for cattle.

“We didn’t see that it had any resale value, so we thought we might as well approach the City and see if they were interested in just leasing the land in perpetuity, or us purchasing it for a low, fair price,” Scragg said during an interview last August.

“We’re looking at doing something with it that I think will benefit not just the RM of Garden River, but anybody in the region who has an interest in doing some sort of day park type activities. It’s a really cool untouched area that has a lot of historical significance.”

The Prince Albert Board of Trade hired Charles H. Mitchell to begin working on the La Colle Falls hydroelectric dam in 1906. Construction started in1912, but the City of Prince Albert struggled to raise money, and by 1913 construction costs ballooned to more than $2-million. That was $1,136,000 more than the original estimate.

An Anglo-Dutch company offered to pay off the City’s debts and finish the project in return for a 40-year lease in 1914. However, negotiations ended after the First World War started and the project was never completed.

Businesses with no payroll can now qualify for a Canada Emergency Business Account (CEBA) loan after the federal government expanded the eligibility criteria on Monday.

The decision affects business owners who are self-employed or sole proprietors, family businesses who pay employees through dividends, and owners who only employ contractors. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said more application details would come at a later date, including more help for business owners who operate through a personal bank account instead of a business account, and for new businesses who have yet to file a tax return.

“Businesses … are the backbone of our economy and the lifeblood of our communities,” Trudeau said during Monday’s announcement. “Whether it’s with the CEBA or the expanded wage subsidy, we’re in your corner.”

Small business owners and industry advocates protested the previous $50,000 minimum payroll eligibility requirement when it was first announced on April 9. They said it excluded family owned businesses or sole proprietors who were self-employed.

Mary NG, the minister for small business, exports, promotion and trade, said the government heard those complaints loud and clear.

“Throughout this crisis, we’ve listened to what small businesses have told us about what works, what doesn’t, and what needs to be improved upon,” Ng tweeted on Tuesday. “That’s what today’s announcement to expand the Canada Emergency Business Account eligibility was about. Our work continues.”

Business groups like the Canadian Federation of Independent Business welcomed the decision, but says the government needs to move quickly to make up for lost time.

CFIB president Dan Kelly said he was “very pleased” with Trudeau’s announcement, but added that most small business owners have gone two months without income. They’ll need help quickly with another looming rent deadline on June 1.

“The initial $40,000 may not be enough for many businesses who continue to be shut down, or those facing a long recovery period,” Kelly wrote in a statement.

The Prince Albert Chamber of Commerce also welcomed the news. CEO Elise Hildebrandt said it would make it easier for small businesses to access much needed supports.

“You always want a few more changes, because I know of a couple of companies it still doesn’t include, but I’m thankful that the money became available and they changed those guidelines to help more of our businesses,” she explained.

This is the second time the federal government has altered the CEBA application guidelines. They reduced the minimum payroll requirements from $50,000 to $20,000 on April 16.

The CFIB says 50 per cent of Canadian small business owners would not be able to reopen if COVID-19 restrictions remain in place past May. Roughly 80 per cent of Canadian small businesses have completely or partially shut down since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a CFIB survey.

The CEBA allows small businesses to apply for forgivable loans of up to $40,000, 25 per cent of which is forgivable if repaid by Dec. 31, 2022. More than 600,000 loans have been approved since it first launched in April.