Ottawa’s pandemic small business loan program lacked checks and balances: AG
Global News
Auditor general Karen Hogan says the Canada Emergency Business Account program wasn’t managed with 'due regard for value for money.'
The auditor general says the small business loan program the federal government rolled out during the COVID-19 pandemic wasn’t managed in a cost-effective way.
Auditor general Karen Hogan says the Canada Emergency Business Account program wasn’t managed with “due regard for value for money.”
The program lent 898,000 small businesses $49.1 billion to help cover expenses such as rent and payroll during the pandemic.
The report estimates $3.5 billion of that went to recipients that were ineligible.
The auditor general says Export Development Canada, which was responsible for the program, acted quickly to get the loans out.
But the report says the Crown corporation relied on sole-source contracts and a single vendor without strong checks and balances.
Under the terms of the voluntary pledge, companies intend to build or buy new sources of power generation for their data centers and cover the expense of infrastructure upgrades.
Oil prices leaped, and stock markets slumped worldwide following military strikes by the United States and Israel on Iran, including Wall Street and the TSX.
'The core thesis is simple. Intelligence tools have changed what it means to build and run a company,' CEO Jack Dorsey said in a letter to shareholders of the financial tech firm.