"It would be unfair to forgive unpaid balances because in effect, you'd be penalizing the businesses that did what they needed to do to get those loans paid back,"

that may be true, but who cares? the government shouldn't be concerned with these childish visions of the economy as some kind of game with winners and losers. rather, it needs to look at the broader social consequences of potentially allowing thousands of businesses to default.

i don't have the data in front of me, but the government cannot allow a massive default to take place. stepping in might not be "fair" from some cutthroat perspective of competitive market capitalism, but it would be the responsible thing for a modern government to do in a modern economy. the government should behave responsibly in preventing default and tell the market advocates to fuck off.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/ceba-loan-not-extended-1.7085696