Toronto 
The Ontario government has announced that is partnering with the federal government by committing $241 million through the new Ontario-Canada Emergency Commercial Rent Assistance Program (OCECRA) to help small businesses affected COVID-19 Emergency Orders.
According to the press release, the total amount of provincial-federal relief that would be provided is more than $900 million.
Ontario-Canada Emergency Commercial Rent Assistance Program
The OCECRA will provide forgivable loans to eligible commercial property owners experiencing potential rent shortfalls because their small business tenants have been heavily impacted by the COVID-19 crisis. To receive the loan, property owners will be required to reduce the rental costs of small business tenants for April to June 2020 by at least 75 per cent and commit to a moratorium on evictions for three months.
The Province’s $241 million investment in OCECRA is part of the $17 billion Ontario’s Action Plan: Responding to COVID-19.
The programs announced by the government amounts to $10 billion to help support jobs and the economy, including:
- Doubling the Employer Health Tax exemption for 2020, cutting taxes by $355 million, benefiting roughly 57,000 employers;
- Eliminating penalties and interest to businesses who miss filing or remittance deadlines for various provincially administered taxes for five months starting April 1, 2020, providing up to $6 billion in cashflow for about 100,000 Ontario businesses;
- Postponing the planned property tax reassessment for 2021, providing stability for Ontario’s property taxpayers;
- Deferring the upcoming quarterly (June 30) remittance of education property tax to school boards by 90 days, providing municipalities with the flexibility to, in turn, provide property tax deferrals of over $1.8 billion to local residents and businesses;
- Implementing the new Regional Opportunities Investment Tax Credit for businesses that make eligible capital investments in designated regions of the province where employment growth h as significantly lagged behind below the provincial average.
