Ottawa Announces More Funding For Small Businesses, Startups
OTTAWA – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced more support for small businesses, as well as workers in various sectors across the country, in his address to the nation Friday.
The federal government will provide $962-million to regional development agencies and the Community Futures Network to support small businesses in rural areas, and those who “don’t have a relationship with a traditional financial institution,” he said.
The government is also giving $270 million to Futurepreneur and the Industrial Research Assistance Program to support innovators and other early-stage businesses that don’t qualify for the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy program.
Trudeau says the measures come as his cabinet ministers report that some businesses are still falling through the cracks despite the various programs rolled out in the past few weeks to help companies.
In addition to funding for small businesses, the Prime Minister also announced support for workers in Alberta, Saskatchewan, British Columbia and Newfoundland and Labrador – all provinces hard hit by the drop in oil prices, and workers in the arts, culture and sports sectors.
The energy sector has been dealt a double whammy – the COVID-19 pandemic and an oversupply of gas coming from Russia and Saudi Arabia that has lowered oil prices globally. That situation may be improving but it’s hurt the oil industry nonetheless.
“As a result, companies have had to slow down or pause their operations, leaving too many people out of work,” Trudeau said.
The government is, therefore, investing $1.7 billion for the clean-up of orphan and inactive wells in Alberta, Saskatchewan and B.C. The wells, he said, can be bad for the environment and for people’s health.
“Cleaning them up will bring people back to work and help many landowners who’ve had these wells on their property for years but haven’t been able to get them taken care of and the land restored. Our goal is to create immediate jobs in these provinces while helping companies avoid bankruptcy and supporting our environmental targets,” he said.
The federal government will also set up a $750-million Emission Reduction Fund to maintain jobs via pollution reduction efforts. The fund includes $75-million aimed at helping the offshore oil and gas industry in Newfoundland and Labrador cut emissions. Trudeau says energy firms are experiencing a cash crunch and don’t have the money to invest in emissions-reducing technology or fix methane leaks right now.
“This fund will primarily provide repayable contributions to firms to make them more competitive, reduce waste and pollution and most importantly, protect jobs,” he said.
The initiatives will allow for around 10,000 jobs to be maintained across the country, including 5,200 jobs in Alberta.
In addition, through the Business Development Bank of Canada and Export Development Canada, Ottawa is expanding the credit support for at-risk medium-sized energy firms to allow them to keep their employees and keep operations going.
For workers in the arts, culture and sports sectors, who are often not eligible for other programs due to different revenue models and other reasons, the government is providing $50-million to Heritage Canada.
The funding will allow artists, creators and rising athletes to get wage support, and organizations going through liquidity problems will have access to the funding as well.
The Prime Minister says his government understands that there are gaps in the measures announced because they were rolled out quickly to cover the broadest swatch of Canadians as possible. But more help could be coming soon for those who are still not getting the help they need.
“We will continue to announce measures that will include more and more people, help more and more people, as we move forward because, for all the millions of people and companies and businesses and employers that we’re helping across this country, we know there is more to do,” he said. “That’s why we’re continually announcing new measures, almost every day, to help fix supports for people in particular situations.”
So far, more than 7.5 million payments have been made to individuals through the Canada Emergency Response Benefit. The government will release updated figures on the CERB through its open data portal three times a week.
“We will continue to provide and open up data so that we can get the best advice from experts and continue to help Canadians,” he said.