Premier Scott Moe announced Thursday the province will be implementing an emergency support program to support small businesses during the COVID-19 crisis.
The $50 million fund will provide support to small and medium-sized businesses that have had to temporarily close or significantly change operations.
The program provides a one-time grant for small and medium-sized enterprises directly affected by government public health orders related to COVID-19.
Grants will be paid based on 15 per cent of a business’ monthly sales revenue, up to a maximum of $5,000.
“The goal of this program is to get some funds in the hands of small businesses across this province as quickly as possible,” said Moe.
To be eligible for the Saskatchewan Small Business Emergency Payment (SSBEP), the business applying needs to have been fully operating by Feb. 29, have ceased or curtailed operations as a result of the COVID-19 public health order, commit to reopen business operations following the cancellation of the public health orders and have less than 500 employees.
The Saskatchewan Chamber of Commerce (SCC) applauds the Government of Saskatchewan’s announcement of a new support program that will assist businesses with their fixed cost obligations during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We have been working with our members non-stop over the past month to better understand the unique challenges businesses are facing, and we continue to advocate for programs to support Saskatchewan businesses during this time of tremendous economic hardship. We welcome the news from the Province and see it as a much-needed new tool for businesses to sustain their operations until things get back to normal,” said Steve McLellan, CEO of the SCC.
The SCC has been speaking to government about the acute challenges for businesses and has made several recommendations. One of these recommendations was changes to lay-off provisions under the Saskatchewan Employment Act, which was announced on March 20. These recommendations will assist in managing the overhead costs that many businesses have. This program is also important to many small businesses whose ability to take on additional debt during a time of greatly reduced revenues is severely constrained.Jeremy Harrison, minister of trade and export, said applications will begin being accepted for the program as soon as April 13.
Moe reported that according to Statistics Canada, Saskatchewan is down 21,000 jobs month over month.
“This is at the very front end of the restrictions that were put in place as we entered the COVID-19 pandemic response,” said Moe.
“We are expecting that we will see additional job losses, not only in Saskatchewan but across the nation of Canada,” he added.
Moe said the investment announcement is one to ensure that when the province gets on the backside of the pandemic curve, the small business community in Saskatchewan remains.
Moe also said the province will be asking the federal government to exempt this funding from the business income for tax purposes.
“This will not solve all of the problems facing businesses during this pandemic,” said Moe.
“However, this is the first step to our economic recovery efforts,” he added.
As of April 9, Saskatchewan now has 278 cases of COVID-19. Additionally, there are now 115 recoveries, 41 per cent of total cases.
Of all cases in Saskatchewan, 160 are considered active, five fewer than the day before.
Twenty-seven of the cases are health care workers. A total of 138 cases are from the Saskatoon area, 58 from the Regina area, 52 from the north, 15 from the south, 10 from the central region and five from the far north.
