Last call for applications for Small Business Support Grant
The Ontario Budget released on Wednesday included increased support for small businesses hardest hit by the pandemic.
To help small businesses that have been most affected by the restrictions necessary to slow the spread of COVID-19, Ontario is providing a second round of Ontario Small Business Support Grant payments to eligible recipients. Approximately 120,000 small businesses that have already received or been approved to receive a grant of between $10,000 and $20,000 will automatically receive a second payment in the same amount. Businesses that have already been approved do not have to apply again.
Parry Sound-Muskoka MPP Norman Miller is reminding any eligible businesses that have not yet applied that they have until next Wednesday, March 31 to apply at www.ontario.ca/smallbusiness. Eligible businesses are those with less than 100 employees and that were required to close or significantly restrict business during the province-wide shutdown that started on December 26.
“I know this grant was a lifeline for many businesses and I hope this second payment will help keep our business viable until it is safe to fully reopen,” said Parry Sound-Muskoka MPP Norman Miller.
As well as doubling the funding for the Small Business Support Grant, the Minister of Finance announced in the budget that another program will be created specifically for tourism related business that were not eligible for the original program.
“I have heard from individual hotels and resorts, from our local Chambers of Commerce and from provincial tourism organizations that these businesses needed support and I have been sharing their stories with the Minister of Finance,” said Miller. “I understand this new program will help those businesses so important to our whole tourism sector, as well as summer camps and other tourism operators that were not eligible for the Small Business Support Grant. The details of the tourism specific program should be available in the coming weeks.”