New fund created to help struggling St. Thomas businesses during pandemic

Small businesses in St. Thomas and Elgin County will soon be able to apply for funding to help them survive the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

"We're trying to help our small businesses," said Earl Taylor, chair of the St. Thomas Downtown Development Board.

Through the COVID-19 Business Development Fund, businesses can apply for grants of up to $2,000 that are awarded on a first-come, first-serve basis.

While some business owners may be tempted to use the money toward covering a loss in sales revenue or existing costs such as rent, that's actually not the goal of the grants.

They're being given "to small businesses to help them pivot, get themselves online," said Taylor. 

"We didn't have very many of our businesses that had an online presence … because it was something that was never thought about," he added. 

While businesses are encouraged to use the grant money toward e-commerce platforms and digital marketing efforts, creative ideas are also welcome. 

The fund is a partnership between the St. Thomas Downtown Development Board, St. Thomas Economic Development Corporation, Elgin County Economic Development and the Elgin-St. Thomas Small Business Enterprise Centre.

Essential vs. non-essential

One of the challenges for small businesses in downtown St. Thomas has been the COVID-19 restrictions that have deemed them to be non-essential, while big-box stores, such as Walmart, are selling similar goods and can continue operating because they also sell groceries. 

"All of the products that's in those big-box stores are available downtown," Taylor said. "When somebody purchases from a small business, that money stays in town."

Taylor raised the issue with Elgin-Middlesex-London MP Karen Vecchio and Elgin-Middlesex-London MPP Jeff Yurek earlier this month.

"They are very supportive of our small businesses," he said. "But according to Jeff Yurek, the provincial guideline has been set in place and [there's] not much we can do about it."

Under Ontario's list of essential businesses, big-box stores are allowed to stay open during the pandemic because they "primarily sell food, beverages and consumer products necessary to maintain households and businesses."

Another challenge small businesses face is that they may not meet the requirements for some of the federal government's assistance programs. 

"Many of our small businesses fall through the cracks," Taylor said, referring to their eligibility for the Canadian Emergency Business Account (CEBA) that allows businesses to apply for interest-free loans of up to $40,000.

In order to qualify for the loan, Ottawa requires businesses to have paid out at least $50,000 in salaries last year, which could exclude some self-employed people and other sole proprietors.

"You have a small business owner that is the sole proprietor, maybe has a part-time person that earns money that's claimed on a T4, but the owner's earnings are not," he said. 

Even if small businesses are eligible for the loan, some are wary about taking on debt at a time of uncertainty. 

"Many of the small businesses are saying, 'hey, do I really go into debt and don't know what the end result is going to be?'" said Taylor.

'We're going to help them'

So far, officials do not have a set number of grants they plan to give out to St. Thomas and Elgin County businesses.

However, about $100,000 has been set aside for the fund, and once the money runs out, applications will no longer be accepted.

"This crisis that we're going through has surprised everybody," Taylor said. "It's going to take some time, it's not going to be overnight ... but we're going to help [businesses]."

Applications for the fund will open on May 1.