by Stephen Dafoe
The NDP was joined recently by new small businesses owners and sole proprietors in calling on the UCP Government to provide what they say are “critical supports to help them survive the COVID-19 pandemic.”
The government’s Provincial Small and Medium Enterprise Relaunch Grant, or the Federal Canadian Rent Subsidy and Canadian Emergency Wage Subsidy excludes new small businesses that opened after February due to not having past revenue comparitors.
“These small businesses have been operating for months without support” said NDP MLA Rod Loyola in a media release Tuesday. “Most of these new small businesses did not choose to open up during the COVID-19 pandemic. These owners have been planning to open for months before COVID-19 hit Alberta. Now they are struggling to stay afloat and they haven’t even been given a chance to get out of the starting gate and succeed in Alberta.”
The Alberta NDP wants to see the government immediately allow new businesses access to the full $20,000 dollars available through the Small and Medium Sized Business Relaunch Grant, and to create rent subsidy and wage subsidy programs for new businesses who do not qualify for federal support because they do not have the past revenue requirements.
