Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is expected to announce on Friday significant rent relief to help business owners who’ve had to shut down their operations and can’t afford to pay their landlords.

The federal assistance is expected to be provided in partnership with provincial and territorial governments which have jurisdiction over rents.

Dan Kelly is the president of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business.

He told the House of Commons finance committee Thursday, 70 per cent of the CFIB’s 30,000 members pay monthly rent for their business premises and, of those, 55 per cent report they cannot afford to pay their rent on May 1st.

Kelly is calling for a non-repayable rent subsidy, not loans or deferral of rent payments.