Canada Fumbled Oversight of Billions in Covid-Era Business Loans, Auditor General Says
- About C$3.5 billion paid to 77,000 ineligible businesses
- Auditor blasts ‘poor program management, oversight failure’
The Canada Emergency Business Account (CEBA) program was introduced by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government in 2020.
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The Canadian government rolled out C$49 billion ($34.8 billion) in loans to businesses during the Covid-19 pandemic without “due regard for value for money,” the country’s auditor general said.
About C$3.5 billion was paid out to more than 77,000 ineligible businesses that applied to the Canada Emergency Business Account (CEBA), Karen Hogan concluded in a report on Monday. That’s 9% of the nearly 900,000 Canadian businesses that received loans through the program, which was introduced by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government in 2020.