January 18th marks an important milestone regarding your CEBA loan repayment.

Despite our best, prolonged efforts, I am sorry to report that the Federal government has given us a hard NO to a CEBA extension. The brutal truth is, given Parliament is rising for the Christmas break soon, there is very little likelihood of a CEBA extension before the deadline of January 18th.

We have been fighting the battle to extend CEBA for more than two years. Our efforts have included:

• Bringing 50 people to Ottawa to lobby more than three dozen MPs, Cabinet Ministers, and departmental staff.
• Running two paid media campaigns (ontheirplate.ca), that reached key decision-makers in the Ottawa area more than 1.9 million times, with over 18,000 ad clicks.
• Mobilizing hundreds of other business associations to support our call for an extension.
• Calling on the provinces to lobby the feds to extend CEBA, which they did this fall.

In June 2022, we launched our campaign to extend the CEBA repayment deadline. Since then, myself, Restaurants Canada’s VPs and restaurateurs across the country have generated 1,200+ media hits on radio, television, and in print. Cumulatively, over the last 17 months, these mentions have been seen nearly one billion times.

I know your time is valuable, and I don’t ask this lightly. Please take one more step and write your MP and Minister Freeland sharing your circumstances and the effect the failure to grant a CEBA repayment extension will have on your operation.

We have made it easy for you to do this. Go to our website now to fill out your letter and send it today: https://www.restaurantscanada.org/extend-ceba

This is the 11th hour and our last opportunity. Tomorrow may be too late.

Thank you for all your efforts, past and present. Know we will continue to fight this all the way.

Kelly Higginson