Town of St. Marys encourages local businesses to apply for financial relief programs

The COVID-19 pandemic has created financial challenges for local businesses and the Town of St. Marys is encouraging them to apply for available financial relief programs.

There are currently five programs available for small and medium businesses and not-for-profits. Some programs are offered by the Province of Ontario, while others are available from the municipality.

“So many of our local businesses have incurred costs in order to operate safely over this past year. When you combine these additional costs with closures and significant losses of revenue, it’s very difficult for them to weather this pandemic.” Says Kelly Deeks-Johnson, Tourism and Economic Development Manager for the Town of St. Marys. “We’re encouraging all of our local businesses to familiarize themselves with these programs to see if they qualify.”

Programs available from the Town of St. Marys include:

The Tourism Adaptation and Recovery Program and the Technology Investment Program

In partnership with RTO4, the Town of St. Marys is implementing a Tourism Adaptation and Recovery Program and the Technology Investment Program to support tourism businesses in our region. There is over $135,000 in grant money available between these two funding streams. This program is designed to help small and medium sized businesses and not-for-profits in the arts and culture sector by supporting one-time adaptation and re-opening costs to continue operations during Covid-19. There are two funding programs available:

Physical Adaptation: Businesses can apply for up to $20,000 toward the implementation of protocols and/or renovations or equipment to accommodate social distancing.

Technology Investment Program: Eligible businesses can apply for $5000 for digitizing services such as virtual queues, online ordering, timed entry ticketing and touch free payments. 

Applications for both of the above programs are due by February 1, 2021 at 11:59 p.m. More information on these two grants can be found at the Town of St. Marys website.

Financial relief programs available through the Government of Ontario include:

Ontario Small Business Support Grant: This new grant will help small businesses that are required to close or significantly restrict services under the current Provincewide Shutdown. 

Main Street Relief Grant: This grant is for Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) providing up to $1,000 for PPE costs for eligible small businesses across Ontario with 2 to 9 employees. 

Property Tax and Energy Cost Rebate Grants: These are available for businesses that were required to shut down or significantly restrict services due to provincial public health measures (modified Stage 2 restrictions or, going forward, in areas categorized as Control, Lockdown or Provincewide Shutdown). These provincial application-based grants provide rebates to eligible businesses with respect to property taxes and energy bills.

More information on the above three grants can be found at the Government of Ontario’s website.

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Contact

Beverly Brenneman | Corporate Communications Manager
519-284-2340, ext. 232 | bbrenneman@town.stmarys.on.ca