Ottawa awarded a single firm 19 non-competitive contracts worth $313 million to shovel pandemic loans out the door

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There’s a reason that outside consultants get paid the big bucks.

In the case of the administration of COVID-era small business loans program, that reason was because the government allowed a consultancy firm to set its own prices, hire its own subsidiary and generally treat the taxpayer as a cash cow to be milked frequently and enthusiastically.

Most of the coverage of the latest Auditor General’s report into the Canada Emergency Business Account program will focus on the $3.5 billion that went to recipients subsequently deemed ineligible, or on the $8.5 billion in loans that have still to be repaid.

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But the real story of bureaucratic bungling is buried halfway through the chapter on the Canada Emergency Business Account’s administration.

The program was designed to provide interest-free loans of up to $60,000 to eligible small businesses, forgiving up to $20,000 if the loan was repaid. The offer of free money was a no-brainer and it proved wildly popular, with nearly 900,000 businesses signing up to borrow $49 billion to cover undeferrable expenses like rent, utilities........

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