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OTTAWA — The federal Liberals threw a credit lifeline to small businesses on the eve of rent coming due, extending a loan program as new figures showed a rent-relief effort is going to fall well short of expectations.
A report Monday from the parliamentary budget officer said the program aiming to provide rent relief to small and medium-sized businesses will cost $931 million after it was extended through to August.
The updated spending projections still put the program on a track to provide less help than the nearly $3 billion the Liberals had budgeted.
The program provides forgivable loans that cover half of rent for eligible small businesses, and also requires landlords to waive a further one-quarter of what they’d otherwise be owed.
Property owners have to apply for the help, and the Liberals have for months repeatedly asked landlords to use the aid — a request Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland reiterated Monday.