Applications are now open for the new Canada Emergency Rent Subsidy which provides financial assistance for eligible fixed property expenses, including rent and interest on commercial mortgages until June 2021. CERS replaces the previous Canada Emergency Rent Assistance program (CECRA) that expired on September 26, 2020.
The subsidy will be available from September 27, 2020 through to June 2021.
Qualifying Properties
Properties (business locations) that do qualify include any “real or immovable property” (buildings or land) in Canada that your business organization:
- Owns or rents;
- Uses in the course of your ordinary business activities
Properties that do not qualify:
- Your home, cottage or other residence used by you, your family members or other non-arm’s length persons
- Any properties you own that are primarily used to earn rental income from arm’s-length parties
Eligibility Criteria for expenses
There are a few criteria that expenses need to meet in order to be eligible to include in your claim for a particular claim period:
- Only amounts paid or are payable to an arm’s-length party
- The expense must be in respect of the claim period
- The expense must be paid or is payable under a written agreement in place before October 9, 2020 (or a renewal on substantially similar terms or assignment of such an agreement)
Eligible expenses if you rent a qualifying property
If you earned any revenue from sub-leasing space on the property to arm’s-length parties, you must subtract that revenue from your eligible expenses.
Top Up Subsidy
A top-up CERS subsidy of 25% will be available for retailers who are temporarily shut down or “significantly limited” by a mandatory public health order. The trigger for this subsidy will be a public health order issues by a federal, provincial or territorial government, or by a municipality or regional health authority.
The top-up subsidy also known as “lockdown support” will be retroactive to September 27, 2020 and eligibility will continue until June 2021. The rules below are in place until December 19, 2020. Details for the top-up subsidy between December 20, 2020 and June 2021 will be available toward the end of the year.
The public health order must stipulate the cessation of some time or types of activity at the location (you cannot self-select in this regard) and the cessation must last for at least one week. Moreover, if a complete shutdown is not ordered, it must be a cessation that reduces revenues at that location by at least 25% relative to the relevant pre-pandemic period.
*Reductions in hours or operation or imposition of physical distancing rules would not qualify for the top-up*
Note: the 25% top-up subsidy means the amount of eligible expenses that will be paid, not 25% of the base subsidy.
Current periods to apply for:
September 27th, 2020 to October 24th, 2020 – Applications must be made no later than 180 days after the end of each relevant qualifying period.
If you would like us to provide this service for you or to see if you qualify, please email info@airikkapassmore.com