The provincial government has announced details of a new financial support program meant to aid small businesses suffering financially due to COVID-19 health orders in the province.
The Saskatchewan Small Business Emergency Payment (SSBEP) is a $50 million program that will be made available to small or medium businesses who have had to temporarily close or had an impact to operations because of coronavirus measures.
Businesses can apply to receive a one-time grant of 15 per cent of their monthly sales revenue up to $5,000, which is exempt from the business’s income for tax purposes, to help manage financial pressures caused by fixed costs like rent or lease payments.
To be eligible, applicants must have been fully operational by the end of February this year, have less than 500 employees, and commit to reopening once the pandemic measures have been lifted.
The grant is a response to many businesses in the province expressing their concerns about cash flow pressures caused by the province’s pandemic restrictions, which Premier Scott Moe and Export Development Minister Jeremy Harrison addressed during a live stream conference on April 9.
“This program was designed to be simple, and it was designed to provide businesses with timely access to much-needed financial supports,” said Premier Scott Moe in a press conference on April 9.
There are over 150,000 small businesses in Saskatchewan — the highest concentration of small businesses in Canada — said Moe, and the provincial government is working to provide supports to help them through this crisis.
Statistics Canada is estimating that Saskatchewan lost 21,000 jobs in March, and the unemployment rate rose by 7.3 per cent.
“These numbers represent real people, who are working for Saskatchewan businesses and are now unemployed, and they highlight the importance of Saskatchewan small businesses receiving support from the government,” said Moe.
Trade and Export Development Minister Jeremy Harrison joined Moe during the conference and indicated that the measures are a response to the expectation that more jobs in the province will be lost as the pandemic continues.
“Our jurisdiction is likely one of the best positioned in the entire world in terms of recovery. We have what the world needs, whether that be food, whether that be fertilizer, whether than be energy,” said Harrison. “And we are going to be prepared as a government . . . to be there when we get on the backside of this pandemic.”
Applications for the SSEBP will be available on April 13, and more information can be found at saskatchewan.ca/covid19-businesses.
