Sask. government renews small business emergency payment program

The Saskatchewan government has renewed a support program for small businesses in the province for the month of December. 

The Saskatchewan Small Business Emergency Payment (SSBEP) program was renewed for the period of Dec. 1 to Dec. 31 on Thursday.

The SSBEP program was launched in April to provide support to small businesses that temporarily closed or were forced to substantially curtail their operations due to COVID-19. 

"By renewing the [SSBEP], we are ensuring small businesses remain strong and continue to provide thousands of jobs across Saskatchewan, even when they are impacted by public health orders necessary to reduce the spread of COVID-19," Premier Scott Moe said in a news release. 

The eligibility period for this phase of the SSBEP spans Dec. 1 to Dec. 31, 2020 and is estimated to cost $8 million.  

Applications will open on Dec.7, 2020 and the application deadline is Jan. 31, 2021.

The province's news release said eligible applicants will receive a payment of 15 per cent, to a maximum of $5,000, of their monthly sales revenues based on November 2019, December 2019 or February 2020. 

Seasonal businesses will be eligible for 15 per cent of the average monthly sales revenue for full months the business operated in 2019.

Eligible applicants must prove the following:

• They are a small or medium business that employs less than 500 people.
• They are permanently established in Saskatchewan and allocate a portion of their income to the province.
• They were operating as of Oct. 31, 2020, or were eligible to operate if it were a seasonal business.
• They are subject to public health orders that affect operations between Dec. 1 and Dec. 31.
• They experienced a loss of sales revenue.
• They plan to reopen when public health restrictions are lifted.

Not the support small businesses asked for: NDP

NDP jobs critic Aleana Young said that while the NDP had called on the government to bring the SSBEP back, it's not the support businesses had asked for in its current form.

"We also called on them to fix [the program]," Young said after Trade and Export Development Minister Jeremy Harrison spoke in the legislative building on Thursday. 

"This program still requires small businesses to be shut down or substantially curtailed by public health orders, but the government's public health orders aren't what's causing hardship for most small businesses right now."

Young, a small business owner herself, said customers choosing to stay home and a lack of clarity from the government is causing hardship on business owners. 

She said business owners are now hearing an "ambiguous threat" that more businesses may be curtailed or suspended during the Christmas season, due to what she said was the government's lack of leadership on COVID-19.

Young said the NDP criticized the SSBEP in the summer for offering no support to businesses that hadn't closed but saw revenues collapse. She said the government's announcement today made that same mistake. 

She added that in her conversations with small and independent business owners she's heard the program doesn't offer quick access and the $5,000 maximum the SSBEP offers is "too little, too late" for the Christmas season. 

"Small businesses that are in the worst of both worlds — told to stay open while their customers are told to stay home — will not get the support they need from this program."

When asked why the program appeared to have little to no change from the spring, when public health orders were different and arguably had a different impact on businesses, Premier Moe noted the program now also affects businesses "curtailed" by health orders.

Moe also said advice for the program had come directly from those impacted in the business community and that feedback from the business support hotline helped guide the renewal of the program.

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