If wasting tax dollars was an Olympic sport, Trudeau and his collective band of larcenist would take gold. If you needed any further proof that the “pandemic” wasn’t about “public health” but the “transfer of public wealth” look no further than the pandemic loan relief program for small business owners. We now learn, surprise, surprise thanks to federal records that it paid more than $2 billion to borrowers who never qualified for it in the first place, I’m sure they identified as qualifying.

Of course this wasn’t’ volunteered by the Liberals, but was finally disclosed as a result of a request by Conservative MP Brad Vis, who represents the riding of Mission-Matsqui in B.C., as reported by Blacklock’s Reporter.

Brad wanting to earn his paycheque, asked for the dollar amount of Canada Emergency Business Account (CEBA) funds “that were initially provided to businesses that were later deemed ineligible.”

Cabinet, in an Inquiry of Ministry tabled in the House of Commons, put the figure at $2,047,682,710.

The CEBA program was open for applications from April 9, 2020, till end June in 2021. By last January, it had provided over $49 billion to nearly 900,000 Canadian businesses, according to Department of Finance Canada.
For those of you not familiar with the mechanics of it, the program initially offered $40,000 in interest-free loans. About six months after its rollout, it was expanded to $60,000 with a third forgiven, maximum of $20,000 on final repayment.

Now in principal I have no issue with the CEBA program, because after all it wasn’t businesses that chose to shut down and it wasn’t Covid that shut things down, but the idiotic response to Covid by the dipwads in charge across the land. So, I can’t blame businesses who were genuinely hurting from the draconian lockdowns to look for help. However, true to form, whether intentionally or intentionally, Ottawa did little in terms of vetting the applications.

Resulting in now about 50,500 borrowers found to be ineligible, wrote staff, and the reasons given included “data quality issues,” suspicious business registration numbers, multiple loan applications by the same firms and “failure to respond to an audit request.” All that to say they f’d it up, like they do everything else.

Total losses under the CEBA program will not be known until 2024 as the federal government extended the repayment deadline until the end of December this year. Yes I’m sure those that didn’t deserve the money in the first place and fraudulently took advantage of it, just need a little more time to make amends. Sorta like all those good folks crossing the border illegally into the U.S. getting caught, and then being released so long as they promise to return for their court appearance.

According to Blacklock’s Reporter, the Canada Revenue Agency in a separate Inquiry of Ministry said 2,640 companies that received interest-free loans were found to be insolvent. Loans to failed firms totaled $1.05 billion.

Leftist Liberal diptards I know insolvent is a big word, it basically means bankrupt, so chances of recovering the money is like finding a Liberal voter with “common sense!”

The insolvency figures were tabled at the request of Conservative MP Kelly McCauley who asked how many organizations that received funding under the CEBA and Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy programs are in receivership or insolvent, and how much funding the organizations received.

Well at least Conservative MP’s seem committed to earning their keep!

A report by the Department of Industry in December 2022 noted that businesses that borrowed from a federal relief program during the pandemic tended to be small and heavily indebted.

According to a report titled “SME Profile: Recipients of the Canada Emergency Business Account.” “Around 40.8 percent of them had been in operation for no more than 10 years,”

And thanks to the Liberal government policies they would never see 11, well that’s one way of reducing Canada’s carbon footprint , huh?

“Most of these (53.2 percent) were micro-sized, having no more than 4 employees, and 38 percent had between 5 and 19 employees.”

Nearly 18 percent of businesses that received the CEBA loans in 2020, also requested other types of debt financing, such as second mortgages, lines of credit, term loans and credit cards, the report said.

Funny how we know so much more about them know than when it really mattered, sorta like Covid huh?