COVID-19 Resources for Businesses

• Help with COVID-19 costs (external link): Find out if your business is eligible for grants to help with the cost of personal protective equipment, property taxes, energy bills and extra support if you have to close or significantly restrict services because of provincial public health measures.
  • Ontario Small Business Support Grant: starting at $10,000 for all eligible businesses, the grant provides businesses with funding to a maximum of $20,000 to help cover decreased revenue expected as a result of the Provincewide Shutdown.
  • Ontario's Main Street Relief Grant - PPE: Eligible small businesses will get one-time grants of up to $1,000 to help with the costs of PPE.
  • Property tax and energy cost rebates: Businesses that are, or were, required to shut down or significantly restrict services due to provincial public health measures can apply for rebates, provided in the form of grants, to help with their fixed costs.
• Interest and penalty relief:
  • COVID-19 Support for Businesses (external link): provides information and advice, including how to stop the spread and details about financial and tax relief programs.
  • Federal taxes (external link): Relief on interest and penalties from not remitting Corporate Income Tax owing.
• WSIB payment deferrals (external link): The financial relief package allows businesses to defer premium reporting and payments until August 31, 2020. All businesses that chose to participate in the financial relief package will have until June 30, 2021 to repay deferred amounts, interest-free.
• Electricity bills (external link): As of October 13, 2020 - The Ontario Energy Board (OEB) announced new electricity prices for households and small businesses that are effective November 1, 2020, under the Regulated Price Plan. The winter Time-Of-Use (TOU) hours and the winter tier threshold for residential customers, which were maintained for the summer 2020 period, will remain in effect on November 1. Since June 1, 2020, residential and small business customers on TOU have been paying a fixed electricity price of 12.8 ¢/kWh for all hours of the day as part of the government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
  • Ontario Electricity Rebate (external link): Businesses will automatically receive a 33.2 per cent reduction off their energy bill when new electricity rates (external link) for Regulated Price Plan (RPP) customers come into effect November 1, 2020.
  • COVID-19 Energy Assistance Program (CEAP) and the COVID-19 Energy Assistance Program for Small Business (CEAP-SB) (external link): One-time on-bill credit to help pay down electricity bill debt.
  • Municipal and provincial property tax relief for small businesses (external link): The province is also considering matching these reductions, which would provide small businesses with as much as $385 million in municipal and provincial property tax relief.
• Employer Health Tax Relief (external link): The Province of Ontario has implemented relief measures to support Ontario businesses, including increasing the Employer Health Tax Exemption and a five-month relief period of filing and payment of provincial taxes.

• Halton Region: 
  • COVID-19 Business Impact Survey Results (PDF file)
• Government of Canada: Resources for Canadian businesses (external link)
• Government of Ontario:
  • COVID-19 Support for Businesses (external link): provides information and advice, including how to stop the spread and details about financial and tax relief programs.
  • List of Essential Businesses (external link) list of essential workplaces as defined in Ontario’s emergency orders.
• Canadian Federation of Independent Businesses: COVID-19 Small Business Help Centre (external link)
• Canadian Chamber of Commerce:
  • COVID-19 Business Resilience (external link)
  • Pandemic Preparedness Guide for Business (external link)
• Ontario Chamber of Commerce: Pandemic Preparedness Toolkit for COVID-19 (external link)
• Workplace Safety & Prevention Services
  • Post Pandemic Business Playbook
  • Post Pandemic Checklist: For Businesses Operating as Usual
  • Post Pandemic Checklist: For Businesses Returning After Shutdown
  • Post Pandemic Checklist: For Businesses Returning after Working Remotely

• Digital Main Street (DMS) is a $57 million program, funded by the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario and the Province of Ontario, to help small businesses impacted by COVID-19 go digital to generate new revenue, survive the pandemic and thrive in the new economy.
• ShopHERE is a DMS program that connects businesses with highly skilled and trained students to help them build and launch online stores. The goal is to help small businesses compete and grow in a world that is increasingly online and recover as quickly as possible as the economy reopens.
• Eligibility
  ShopHERE focuses on small independent businesses that currently do not have the resources/capabilities to build an online store or do business via e-commerce. To apply, businesses must:
  • be incorporated (or registered);
  • have fewer than 10 employees (full time), or fewer than 25 employees (full time) if they are a café, restaurant or bar;
  • not be a national/large corporate chain or franchise; and
  • be located on a main street, in an industrial area, or be a home business.
  Registered social enterprises may be considered for support. This includes not-for-profits, but does not include registered charities.
• Where can companies apply?
  To register for this program, please visit the Digital Main Street website (external link)
• The Digital Service Squad Grant Program (external link) provides training, advisory support and a grant of up to $2,500 to support businesses across Ontario.

For information about the Consolidated By-law 47-20 (including what it means for your business) and resources to assist you, please visit the COVID-19 Information and Guidance page.

• Government of Canada economic response plan (external link): Funds to address the financial needs of affected organizations within these sectors so they can continue to support artists and athletes.

• Government of Ontario agriculture and food jobs portal (external link): Matches employers with job seekers.
• Farm Credit Canada (FCC) (external link): Provides additional financing for farmers, agribusinesses and food processors.
• Emergency On-farm Support Fund (external link): The fund provides $35 million to help agricultural workers. Eligible recipients can include: sole proprietors, partnerships, corporations/cooperatives/communal organizations, trusts, band farms that produce agricultural products for resale and employ farm workers, either domestic and/or Temporary Foreign Workers. Investments made by producers after March 15, 2020 will be eligible for reimbursement under the program. In Ontario, the rollout will take place in the upcoming weeks.

• Futurpreneur Canada (external link): Offers collateral-free loans for aspiring young business owners to secure financing.
• The Industrial Research Assistance Program (IRAP) (external link): Provides funding for companies to pursue growth and profit by developing and commercializing innovative, technology-driven new or improved products, services or processes in Canada.
• NGen – Next Generation Manufacturing Canada (external link): $50 million in supercluster funding to support companies as they rapidly respond to the COVID-19 crisis by building a Canadian supply of essential equipment, products and therapeutics.
• Ontario Centres of Excellence - COVID-19 Collaboration Platform (external link): Connects Ontario innovators to help support the COVID-19 response effort.

• Support Ontario Program (external link): A free program for all manufacturers in Ontario to raise awareness about their locally built goods and for consumers to get access to local products and support some 40,000 Ontario manufacturers that employ 750,000 Ontarians.