Make sure to check your bank accounts, as a surprise deposit may just make your month!

That's according to the Canadian government, which announced Monday that eligible small businesses could have already received a "significant" cut of a major $2.5 billion carbon tax rebate from the federal government this week.

"Some more extremely good news — we have talked about the fact that this year we’re going to pay the Canada Carbon Rebate for Small Businesses. These are going to be significant sums of money," Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland remarked.

"A business with 10 employees in Ontario, for example, will be getting $4,000. A business with 499 employees in Alberta will be getting $294,000. These are going to be significant payments to small businesses across the country." 

She added that it was initially scheduled to come later this winter, but the government knew businesses were struggling.

"We're here to announce that Canadian small businesses will be getting those payments ahead of schedule. The first wave of payments has been processed. Direct deposits should start showing up in businesse'’ bank accounts today and should arrive between today and December 3rd. Small businesses should check their My CRA Account to see where their rebate is in terms of being processed," she said.

To determine how much money your business could get, head to the CFIB calculator.

"I'd like to remind you, what we said we would do is deliver those direct deposits on December 15th, but we know how urgent it is for small businesses to get that help. I am glad we're able to announce today that small businesses today will be starting to get their rebate," Freeland added.

However, critics say that while the money is urgently needed, there are gaps in the messaging from the government over the Canada Carbon Rebate for Small Businesses.

"…a portion of fuel charge proceeds from 2019-20 through 2023-24 will be returned to approximately 600,000 Canadian-controlled private corporations with one to 499 employees through this new refundable tax credit," the government said in an earlier release.

Jairo Yunis is the director for British Columbia and Western economic policy with CFIB says that the rebates were long overdue and that the organization had fought to ensure that the money didn't remain in the government coffers, adding that two provinces are not eligible for the rebate, including B.C., due to a separate carbon pricing model.

"That's our advocacy, our fight here in B.C., to get more money back to British Columbians and get money back to small businesses," Yunis said in an earlier interview.

He said that while the organization no longer supports the federal carbon tax model, it still believes that the increasing carbon tax costs should be paid out to everyone, not only individuals and families.

"The federal government rebates 90 per cent of the revenues to households and the rest to small businesses and indigenous communities. The B.C. government uses 40 per cent of the revenues to fund a climate action tax credit for low-income households, and the remaining 60 per cent just goes into general revenue," Yunis said.

He said that if B.C. had a similar program, it would go a long way.

"[It] would signal to [businesses] that the government is really serious when they talk about affordability. It's not only affordability for households, but also for businesses. Businesses, like small businesses in the province, only want to do what they do best, which is provide essential and affordable services… and they can't do [that] at affordable prices because of all these costs, plus the carbon tax," he said.