Thank you very much, Mr. Ste-Marie.
Indeed, we invested $300,000 to prepare for the season. However, in 2020, my establishment incurred nearly $1 million in debt, taking fixed costs into account. Every establishment that is a member of the association is currently in the same situation.
Are the available programs adapted to our industry? The answer is definitely no. Unfortunately, our businesses have been closed for 12 months. The wage subsidy will come to an end in June 2021, and we won't have resumed our activities. In that sense, the wage subsidy is not adapted to our industry. I am adding to all this the loan system of the regional relief and recovery fund, RRRF. That system provides interest-free loans. We are extremely grateful for it, but a question remains: how can we repay that loan without an income?
We are currently struggling to pay our bills. Some owners had to sell their home and are living in their establishment, as they lack cash flow. The situation is truly disastrous for those business owners.
The only assistance systems available to them are repayable, interest-free loans. We are grateful for those, but we will unfortunately not be able to repay the loans over the medium term. If we consider the Canada emergency business account, CEBA, we see that it's a loan of $60,000, $20,000 of which is subsidized. Thanks to the assistance systems available to our industry, every establishment can receive $20,000 through CEBA. Otherwise, the money provided through other assistance programs is repayable.
So I am confirming that this is not adapted to our needs. $20,000 is equivalent to the fixed costs we have to pay to run the establishment for about two weeks.