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“We have tried for the last week to apply” he told the Post, including spending close to two hours on hold on the phone before someone at RBC told him they would be sending an email so he can apply. Pancer said the email had not arrived by mid-day Wednesday.

Pancer said he is still paying staff despite a sharp decline in revenue as his business, along with many others, is severely limited in the service it can offer amid efforts to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus.

“My sales are down 60 per cent,” he said, adding that he is disappointed he has been unable to access funds to support his “all-Canadian small business.”

I am desperately in need of the CEBA but … they are not making it available Michael Pancer

Nearly 80 per cent of small businesses in Canada are fully or partially closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and efforts to contain it, with little or no revenue coming in as their bills continue to pile up, according to the Canadian Federation of Independent Business.

Pancer is not alone in his frustration in trying to access the emergency loans of up to $40,000 through RBC, Canada’s biggest bank.

Jane Gillanders, who has a dental practice in Toronto, and Mary R. Di Salvo, who has a financial advisory business in London, Ont., described similar stumbling blocks when applying to the bank for the emergency loan, which is interest free for the first year, with a quarter of the total forgivable if the rest is repaid by the end of 2022.

“The issue is that the enrolment button only appeared in certain business accounts,” said Gillanders. “It was not available except by ‘invitation’ essentially.”