Whenever he’s pressed, as he was last week in the House of Commons, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty loves to thunder at Opposition politicians that the top priority for the federal government is to make sure Canada’s financial system is working.
“We will deal with the most important problem facing Canadians today, which is access to credit,” Flaherty said, in response to Opposition attacks last week in the House of Commons.
Rick Abbott, the owner and operator of a log-hauling rig in Thunder Bay, Ont. would surely agree with Flaherty’s diagnosis of the problem but he doesn’t see much evidence that Ottawa is, in fact, dealing with his credit problem.
Abbott is on the verge of losing his truck trailer because, though he’s paid off four years of a five-year government-backed small business loan, his bank says the federal government won’t let him refinance the loan to help tide him over a layoff of a few months this spring.
“I didn’t ask for a handout. I’m not asking to get out of my next 10 payments or anything like that,” Abbott said. “It’s just, if I’m not working can I just pay the interest? And the answer is no.”
Abbott is facing the kind of problems facing thousands of business owners across the country. His story illustrates how the collapse of banks in other countries and the global financial crisis those failures caused is hurting ordinary Canadians far from the epicentre of the crisis on Wall Street. [Read the rest . . .]
“… his bank says the federal government won’t let him refinance the loan to help tide him over a layoff of a few months this spring.”
Could this be a case of passing the buck (no pun intended)? Hasn't the government said time and again that it is injecting funds in order to ease the credit crunch?
From Canada’s Economic Action Plan ch. 3, http://www.budget.gc.ca/2009/plan/bpc3a-eng.asp
“Canada Small Business Financing Program
The Government will increase the maximum eligible loan amount a small business can access under the Canada Small Business Financing Program for loans made after March 31, 2009. The current limit, which has not changed in the past 15 years, will be raised from $250,000 to $350,000 and to $500,000 for loans made for acquiring real property. Under the program, the Government guarantees 85-per-cent of loans made by eligible institutions to qualifying businesses. Currently, institutions with a portfolio of eligible loans above $500,000 can claim reimbursement on losses of up to 10 per cent of the value of their portfolio. Budget 2009 increases this limit to 12 per cent for loans made after March 31, 2009 in order to encourage increased lending to small business. In addition, regulatory amendments will reduce the program’s associated paperwork burden. These changes are expected to result in more than $300 million in additional lending. …”
Hopefully, “real property” includes truck trailers.
If I were Rick Abbott, I’d march into the bank manager’s office armed with that information and ask for a review. It might also be wise to inquire at other banks, no? And seek help from his MP.
Is there any way that credit can be extended to Rick Abbott from us “ordinary Canadians” to help get him by this sqeeze———? ? Don, Chemainus, B.C.