Senators question Freeland on transparency of aid package for troubled businesses
Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland is pledging to fill a gap in the government’s bid to bolster hard-hit businesses with rent relief, but she faced stern questions from senators about transparency.
The House of Commons agreed last week to pass a proposed package of measures quickly, but none can be enacted until the Senate passes it as well.
The aid bill known as C-9, now under review by the Senate finance committee, would extend the federal wage subsidy until next summer — cancelling a previously planned decline in its value — and expand a popular business loan program.
The legislation would also redo a widely criticized program for commercial rent relief. The revamped program includes a requirement that entrepreneurs pay their rent before applying, putting the subsidy out of reach for many cash-strapped stores.
Facing backlash from industry, Freeland promised Thursday an interim solution “to make sure that rent payable is an eligible expense from day one.”
While the aid bill now before the Senate will not cement that revision, the government will “swiftly” table legislation after C-9 is passed to formalize the pledge, she said.
In the meantime, Freeland has informed the Canada Revenue Agency of Ottawa’s plan.
“Given that this is our clear and publicly stated intention, we are confident that the CRA will consider rent payable as an eligible expense from the moment the new rent program is launched,” Freeland told senators. “There will be no delay.”
The hitch was revealed last week when Canadian Federation of Independent Business president Dan Kelly posted tweets warning that the legislation would make businesses cough up rent to be eligible for the cash.
The question of financial health and transparency related to the broader aid bundle came up repeatedly at Thursday’s Senate committee hearing.
“Why is the government refusing to provide program and financial information to parliamentarians?” asked Conservative Sen. Elizabeth Marshall, calling for monthly updates on costing figures that are “very much lacking.”
Conservative Sen. Larry Smith argued that Freeland and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau seem to have “two different opinions” of financial accountability, with the one calling for a “limited and temporary” fiscal response to the pandemic and the other brushing off the notion of fiscal anchors to ground government spending.