Prince George Chamber of Commerce CEO Todd Corrigall welcomed a pair of announcements by the provincial and federal governments on Thursday to offer relief to businesses weathering the COVID-19 pandemic.
On Thursday the province announced further reductions of the provincial school tax portion of property tax on commercial land and buildings, estimated to cut the overall property tax bill for most businesses by 25 per cent. The move was expected to provide $700 million in property tax relief to commercial property owners.
While some businesses and major industries that own their land will benefit directly, others that lease may still see some savings, Corrigall said.
"The hope is the owners of the properties are able to pass those savings on to the businesses that rent them. Hope being a four-letter, capital word," he said. "Something that we've been saying a lot is if there is to be a recovery, there has to be businesses that survive. There is a role for landlords to take part in that."
In Thursday's announcement, the province also said commercial property owners won't face late payment penalties on property taxes until Oct. 1.
B.C. businesses will also be allowed to defer filing and paying their employer health tax, PST, carbon tax, motor fuel tax, tobacco tax and municipal hotel tax until Sept. 30.
The scheduled increase to the carbon tax, and the application of PST to e-commerce transactions and sweetened, carbonated drinks will also be delayed.
"These are survivability measures. It's about what do we do now to ensure there is a group of businesses to recover," Corrigall said. "In the immediate term, it's (about) cash flow."
Allowing businesses to hold off making those payments will leave them more money in reserve to pay staff, rent and other costs while revenues are down, he said.
"We know that B.C. communities and businesses are suffering from the economic impacts of COVID-19," B.C. Finance Minister Carole James said in a press release. "That is why our B.C. COVID-19 Action Plan is focused on the health and safety of British Columbians, direct support for people and businesses and economic recovery in our province."
On Thursday morning, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced the expansion of the eligibility criteria for loans under the Canadian Emergency Business Account program. The program provides government-guaranteed, loans of up to $40,000 to businesses.
Previously, only businesses with annual payrolls of between $50,000 and $1 million were eligible. On Thursday, Trudeau said the criteria has been expanded to include businesses with as little as $20,000 in annual payroll, up to $1.5 million.
The loans are interest-free until Dec. 31, 2022, and if they're paid off by then, up to 25 per cent of the total will be forgiven. Since the program launched in March, 195,000 Canadian businesses have received loans under the program totalling $7.5 billion.
Corrigall said the federal government has been getting feedback from business stakeholders on its relief programs and fine-tuning them as they go. Reducing the payroll criteria from $50,000 to $20,000 will allow many smaller businesses to be eligible, he added.
"So that is positive, they are listening," he said. "There is still a little bit of work to do there, when it comes to individual consultants."
Consultants and contractors may not pay themselves a salary, but rather take the proceeds of the business operations, meaning they have no payroll and aren't eligible for the program, he explained.
The Prince George Chamber of Commerce conducted a survey of local business owners last week on how the COVID-19 pandemic has effected them, and expects to release the data next week.
"We're fortunate here, for a couple reasons. We have a group of small businesses that are very innovative," he said. "Very early on, they were coming up with ways to allow customers to access their services in a safer manner. It's a great combination of mitigation, innovation and collaboration."
The Prince George Chamber of Commerce offers information for local business owners about the supports available for business on its website, www.pgchamber.bc.ca, as well as has a current list of local businesses that are open through the pandemic.
— With files from The Canadian Press
