Photo: Shaun Penner

By Shane Clausing

business loans

Community Futures launches program to help give small businesses financial relief

May 25, 2020 | 2:24 PM

Small businesses in Grande Prairie and the Peace Region that don’t qualify under any of the Government of Canada’s current COVID-19 business relief programs can now access additional financial relief and recovery support.

On Monday, Community Futures for Grande Prairie & Region announced that it will begin offering tailored small business loans as part of the Government of Canada’s Regional Relief and Recovery Fund.

The federal government has committed $95.7 million to the nationwide program. Holly Sorgen, the Executive Director for Community Features Grande Prairie & Region says this money is huge for making sure local businesses don’t fall through the cracks and can stay afloat.

“For a lot of businesses, it could be a game changer for them. Initially the Canada Emergency Business Account (CEBA) was announced and many of our businesses didn’t meet those criteria because there was a wage minimum and maximum that they had to hit. It can ensure that some of these business owners take a bit of a breath, that they can pay some non-deferrable expenses and that they might be able to also support some of their big pivots that they’ve been doing in order to ensure that continues to help them operate.

“At the end of the day, for businesses that really need it to keep their house out of water, this is a program that can do that for them.”

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Small and medium sized businesses can apply for loans up to $40,000.

The following terms include:

• No interest accrual or principal payments through December 31, 2022.
• If 75% of the loan is repaid by December 31, 2022, the remainder of the loan is forgiven.
• Blended principal and interest payments beginning January 1, 2023 and loans must be repaid by December 31, 2025.
• No prepayment penalties.

The following requirements need to be met by a small or medium sized business if they want to submit an application for the program.

• Having less than 500 employees and annual sales revenue of less than $20 million, and produce goods and services for the market economy, regardless of their business structure (e.g. sole proprietorships, social enterprises, cooperatives, etc.).
• The applicant has not been approved for other federal supports such as the Canada Emergency Business Account (CEBA)
• The SME must have been viable as of March 1, 2020.
• Established before March 1, 2020.
• Must have been adversely impacted because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Sorgen says that when the announcement was made on Monday morning and people started to find out from social media, they saw an uptick in registrations, which is sure to continue in the coming days. She adds that in the first 90 minutes of the program launching, one application was completed, and six new people registered for the website.

“I think we’re going to find that there’s a fairly strong demand in every region in the province and we are asking people to get on and get registered,” said Sorgen. “Go through the application process so that you’re aware of the information that you require.

“The quicker the applications can come in, the faster we can go through them and ensure that we are giving them the best information back and supporting the businesses as we can.”

Those interested in applying for the program can do so here.