MOUNTAIN VIEW COUNTY - The county’s COVID-19 relief grant program designed to help small businesses and community groups facing challenges created by the pandemic was well received, with a total of $143,572 allocated, council recently heard.
In January council approved a plan to allocated $412,157 in provincial Municipal Operating Support Transfer (MOST) funding to community groups and local businesses impacted by the pandemic.
Council instructed administration to refine the allocations to provide support to community groups and small businesses in the county.
Administration subsequently reached out to a number of businesses, community halls and community groups in an attempt to identify the impact the pandemic has had on their respective operations.
Allocations for small businesses depended on the category the operation fell under as outlined by the provincial chief medical officer of health order 42-2020.
Generally the categories are one of two types: whether the business had been ordered closed to the public (categories 1-5) or had been allowed to remain open under limited capacity or must schedule appointments (categories 6-8).
Businesses in categories 1 to 5 could applied for funding to the equivalent of a maximum of 100 per cent of their municipal portion of property taxes paid in 2020.
The category 6-8 businesses could apply for a maximum of $500.
Community groups and organizations were notified of the program through a number of avenues, including the county sending letters to each property in the municipality that had non-residential assessments associated with it, said Christopher Atchison, director of legislative services.
He updated council on the program during the March 10 council meeting.
Rural community groups were allocated $24,516 from a budget of $50,000.
Rural community halls were allocated $47,199 from a budget of $80,000.
Family Community Support Services (FCSS) organizations were allocated $2,500 from a budget of $50,000.
“FCSS was quite under-subscribed, which wasn’t completely surprising as a lot of those programs didn’t proceed as planned,” he said. “Only one applicant under the program (was received).”
Libraries were allocated $3,000 from a budget of $3,000.
“All of our libraries received an automatic payment of $500 per library,” he said.
Businesses in categories 1-5 received $55,857 from a budget of $230,000.
Businesses in categories 6-8 received $10,500 from a budget of $25,000.
“All in all it went fairly well,” he said.
A total of $375,185 in MOST funding to the county remains unallocated, including approximately $268,000 for the community support program.
“The MOST grant has be spent by March 31, that is one of the requirements, so municipalities can also use it to offset deficiencies of revenue, shortfalls of revenue, so we'll be using the balance of the funds against our revenue shortfalls from 2020 and the first three months of 2021,” said Jeff Holmes, the county's chief administrative officer.
