By Town of Ponoka Mayor, Kevin Ferguson

Mayor's message

“Let’s Celebrate Small Business Week,” says Ponoka Mayor

Oct 17, 2022 | 5:07 PM

As we celebrate Small Business Week, we want to thank all of the businesses in Ponoka for helping make our community both strong and vibrant.

This year, the Town of Ponoka has issued 538 business licences to date. Of those, 34 are new businesses to the town, which is wonderful to see. Local businesses are the engine that drive our local economy by creating jobs and generating economic growth. Having so many new businesses opening their doors this year is a great economic boost for Ponoka.

Shop Local

An important way we can all support our local businesses is to shop local. By purchasing products and services locally, we can support our community and help drive more economic growth.

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Supporting businesses and economic growth remains a top priority for the Town. One of the ways the Town is doing this is by working to attract new businesses and support existing business in our community through our New Resident and Business Attraction Incentive Programs.

The Business Incentive Programs are in place to attract new businesses to expand or relocate to our community and to encourage new and existing businesses to build new commercial properties in Ponoka.

New Business Grant

The New Business Grant offers a one-time-per-business grant payment of up to $1,000 for businesses that are new to Ponoka, reside and operate in the Town and have not previously operated in the community.

Commercial New Build Incentive

The Commercial New Build Incentive offers property tax breaks to new or existing businesses in the Town of Ponoka that build a new property on commercially-zoned land in the Town.

Attracting New Residents to Ponoka

The Town also continues to promote our New Resident Attraction and Incentive Programs to attract new residents to move to our community.

This program offers incentives to:

• Buyers or builders of Newly-Built Homes in the Town of Ponoka. This incentive is open to new and existing residents who build or buy a newly built home in Ponoka.
• Buyers of Homes that have already been lived in who move into the home from a municipality outside of Ponoka.
• Residents who complete major renovations on their existing home which result in an increased property assessment value (excluding land) of at least 20 per cent. This incentive is also open to new and existing residents in the Town of Ponoka.

By attracting new businesses and new residents to Ponoka, we can broaden Ponoka’s tax and assessment base and generate new revenue to help our community grow and thrive into the future. Attracting new residents also increases the number of people who shop at our local businesses, which helps build a stronger local economy.

Full details about the New Resident and Business Attraction Incentive Programs are available at www.ponokarealliving.ca.

Again, we would like to thank all of Ponoka’s businesses for their contributions to our community. Each business helps make Ponoka a place we are proud to call home.