(File Photo/northeastNOW Staff)

By Mat Barrett

MTA Responds to Federal Funding

‘It looked very very bleak’: Melfort Trade Alliance positive after federal funding announcement

Mar 27, 2020 | 5:01 PM

The Melfort business community is one of many communities across Canada that might benefit from the federal government’s latest announcement.

On Friday, March 27, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced new measures to help out small businesses. Those measures included, bumping up the wage subsidy to 75 per cent from 10 per cent, allowing businesses to apply for an up to $40,000 loan interest free for one year, there’s also another loan open for small or medium sized businesses, and businesses are also given more time to pay their GST or HST.

“I think it will help out our community greatly,” said Melfort Trade Alliance (MTA) President Tyler Fahlman. “I know that it may even get some people back to work with that amount of subsidy coming in as well.”

Fahlman added businesses in Melfort are “doing the best they can.” Some businesses have had to shut their doors for the time being, while others have been able to remain operational under some strict limits.

“It’s a very tough time, and things are a little scary out there,” Fahlman told northeastNOW. “But I think this is going to aleve a lot of stress and pressure that my fellow business owners are feeling.”

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The wage subsidies are said to be back dated to May 15th, and Fahlman said the MTA hopes the money comes sooner rather than later.

“If it’s going to be a month and a half, or a month even,” he said. “Some businesses have to pay rent, and if their shop is closed right now because of government direction, there’s no income coming in to pay rent. So the faster the federal government can get this out to us, the better it will be for all businesses.”

Fahlman said he will be talking to business owners over the weekend as they continue to touch base with each other. He added the MTA is trying to work with the City of Melfort as well to try and see if they are able to help in any way.

The MTA is also making sure any information they put out publicly is vetted and looked over numerous times to make sure the right information is being sent out, and so businesses get the right information so people can make choices based on that.

Fahlman said things weren’t looking good for businesses for a while, but he’s hoping the help coming provides some cheer for the local businesses.

“Up until today, it looked very very bleak,” he said. “We had talked to a lot of businesses and they told us ‘if this lasts longer than six weeks, we won’t be able to re-open.'”

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mat.barrett@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @matbarrett6