B.C. eases requirements for struggling businesses applying for support - Action News
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British Columbia

B.C. eases requirements for struggling businesses applying for support

Changes to the eligibility requirements to the Small and Medium-Sized Business Recovery Grant Programwere announced on Monday, which will allow moresmall businesses and tourism operations devastated by the COVID-19 pandemic, to apply for funding.

Temporarily closed or seasonal businesses are now also eligible for recovery grant

More businesses in B.C. that have been adversely affected by the pandemic will now be eligible to receive up to $30,000 from a recovery grant. (Justin Tang/The Canadian Press)

Changes to the eligibility requirements to the Small and Medium-Sized Business Recovery Grant Programwill allow moresmall businesses and tourism operations devastated by the COVID-19 pandemicto apply for funding.

Ravi Kahlon, the minister of Jobs, Economic Recovery and Innovation, announced Monday thatbusinesses must now show a revenue drop of 30 per cent instead of 50 per cent since March as part of the criteria to qualify forgrantsfrom $10,000 to $30,000.

He saidtourism businesses will now be eligible for up to $45,000 in non-repayable grant funding, and the tourism minister will announce more supports for the sector on Tuesday.

Kahlon saidbusinesses previously had to be operating for three years in order to get funding, but that requirement has been reduced to 18 months. He saidthat means businesses only need to have been in operation for nine months before the pandemic to apply for a grant.



Applications can now be made online, and businesses that already applied for the original recovery grant program that was introduced in October will be considered under the new criteria.

"To own a business during these uncertain times brings challenges that no one could ever have imagined.'' Kahlon said on Monday.

The government has also dropped the requirement for businesses to list some information in the application, including registration numbers for the GST, the provincial sales tax and WorkSafeBC, to make the process easier.



Businesses that are temporarily closed or seasonal are now also eligible for the grant program.

Ian Tostenson, president of theB.C. Restaurant Foodservicesand Association, saidsmall and medium-sized employers have struggled to keep their doors open, adding that many of the sector's 193,000 employees are women aged 15 to 25.

The grant program is meant for businesses that employ between two and 149 residents of B.C.