Businesses in Vernon received over $4M in COVID relief funding

Mar 17, 2022 | 12:56 PM

Businesses in the Vernon area received over $4 million in provincial grants through the COVID-19 pandemic.

Vernon-Monashee MLA Harwinder Sandhu said the grants, provided through the Small-and Medium Sized Business Recovery, the Circuit Breaker Business Relief and the COVID-19 Closure Relief programs allowed businesses to adapt and recover from the impacts of the pandemic.

“Our business community in the Interior is so resilient and the workers and owners have been so incredible throughout the pandemic,” said Sandhu.

“I’m happy we were able to provide supports to help manage these challenges, and so proud of their efforts to keep people safe and working.”

As a whole, the Thompson-Okanagan economic region received over $53 million in provincial support through these grant programs. Those funds went to support approximately 3,400 businesses across the region.

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The local economic region received the third highest potion of the provincial grant funds after the Lower Mainland ($353 million to support 22,300 businesses) and Vancouver Island (close to $85 million to support 5,300 businesses).

“In addition to direct supports to businesses, the province helped small business owners pivot through the Launch Online Grant Program,” said Ravi Kahlon, Minister of Jobs, Economic Recovery and Innovation.

“This $42-million program allowed small and medium-sized businesses throughout the province to build or strengthen their digital commerce capabilities to sell made-in-B.C. products online.”

It was noted that the province also supported various sections of the economy by investing:

$4.5 million to cover tuition in the Alacrity Canada’s Digital Marketing Bootcamp for close to 6,000 people;
$19.4 million to help 33 small tourism-dependent municipalities build, adapt and diversify the tourism infrastructure, with another $13.6 million supporting 54 targeted tourism development projects;
$10 million through the Accelerating Manufacturing Scale-Up Program for 43 projects aimed at strengthening innovation and diversification while creating new family-supporting jobs;
$6 million for 24 projects in the Supply Chain Resiliency Program to strengthen manufacturing and supply chains;
$8 million through the B.C. Indigenous Tourism Recovery Fund for non-repayable grants to Indigenous tourism businesses.

“In total, the province has now exceeded the initial commitment to provide more than $1.5 billion to help people, businesses and communities impacted by the pandemic with our economic recovery plan,” said Kahlon.

The minister added that, as the province takes the next step to move past the pandemic, the government will commit to building on B.C.’s steady economic recovery noting that wages are rising and that the province has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the country.

He also acknowledged that more work needs to be done, especially in addressing inequality and climate change and their effects on the economy, as the province moves forward with its economic recovery plans.

by Liam Verster

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