By rdnewsNOW Staff

Helping Hand

Town of Ponoka offers Hardship Grants to local businesses struggling through pandemic

Mar 20, 2021 | 2:00 PM

Dozens of businesses in Ponoka are soon set to receive a little help from the Town.

Town officials have announced they’ve mailed out Hardship Grant payments this week to 89 Ponoka businesses that have suffered significant financial losses due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Hardship Grant offers financial assistance to eligible Ponoka businesses whose bottom lines have been hit hard by the pandemic due to impacts such as full or partial closure of their business due to a public health order; reduced business hours; and decreased revenue.

“Local businesses are the economic engine that help drive our local economy by generating jobs and economic growth in our community,” says Ponoka Mayor Rick Bonnett, in a press release. “The Hardship Grant was created to help our local businesses that are struggling most during the pandemic by reducing some of the financial stress they are experiencing. Council’s hope is that all of these businesses will survive the financial impacts of this pandemic.”

Town officials say a total of $50,000 was allocated to the Hardship Grant through the Municipal Operating Support Transfer (MOST) grant, which is being provided to municipalities by the provincial and federal governments to help offset lost revenue and fiscal challenges due to COVID-19.

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The $50,000 is being shared among eligible in-town businesses that applied for the grant. Grant payments were allocated by business type based on the percentage of 2020 business licences in each of the five Town of Ponoka business licence categories, and the number of businesses that applied and qualified for grant funding in each category.

Eligible businesses were required to physically reside and operate in the Town of Ponoka and hold a 2020 and 2021 Town of Ponoka business licence, or they must be exempt from requiring a business licence from the Town.

Eligible businesses must also have been significantly impacted financially by COVID-19.