Response to CERB Qualification and Repayment Expectations

I was awoken at 3am last night to a mind full of the letter I've been wanting to write to our MLA, Premier of BC and our Prime Minister Trudeau with regards to the Canadian Emergency Relief Benefit. For those of you not in Canada, the CERB was the financial relief our Federal government made available for small business owner who do not qualify for Unemployment Insurance. It was offered when the country shut down all non-essential businesses and our schools at every level.

Our federal tax agency has since issued hundreds of thousands of letters of repayment for businesses that are deemed to not have qualified for the relief, after the fact. I'm one of those small businesses.

Here is what I've written to our politicians:

"Response to CERB Qualification and Repayment Expectations"

Dear Mr Horgan

As Premier of British Columbia, I’m writing to you today with regards to the Canadian Emergency Relief Benefit. I am among the hundreds of thousands of small, Sole Proprietor, home-based businesses to receive the letter from the CRA in December 2020 indicating that my business was not eligible to receive the emergency relief, after I applied in good conscience.

I have operated a successful, full-time, healing practice for the past 14 years. I offer counselling, energy healing and education to others wishing to become certified Healers. I’m a law-abiding citizen and I pay my taxes each year. I was informed by my accountant that the CERB was for businesses such as mine and to apply.

I am now told I did not qualify for this emergency relief. I would like to strenuously bring to your attention a fundamental detail which seems to have been overlooked by our Federal and Provincial governments, the CRA and every politician and private citizen I have spoken with on this matter.

This was an EMERGENCY RESPONSE BENEFIT made available because the government locked us down in response to Covid-19 and made it impossible for us to continue to do our work and earn an income. It ABSOLUTELY should not matter what our income after business expenses was for 2019! This was and continues to be an unprecedented circumstance.

I have been informed that I had too many business expenses in 2019 to qualify for the CERB, regardless of how much my business made and too few to successfully apply for the $60,000 small business loan. What, exactly, am I expected to do to keep my business operating?

The only qualifications for the CERB should be:

1) Is the business a legitimate, registered business?

2) Was the business unable to operate due to the government’s mandated shutdowns of schools and non-essential businesses in response to Covid-19?

If a small business owner, Sole Proprietor or home-based business operator answers “Yes” to either of these questions, this should be sufficient to have qualified and to NOT be expected to pay back the emergency relief benefits!

Sincerely, Megan Edge

I'm trying to figure out how to send it to Prime Minister Trudeau as well and possibly to the newspapers. This is me, standing up for my business, my work and other small business owners!