145 small businesses in the Nipissing District will split over $2.9 million from the provincial government.
The money is coming from the Northern Ontario Recovery Program (NORP), which is run through the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corporation (NOHFC).
The grants are intended to help small businesses retool operations to accommodate for the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We’re all too familiar with the scale of economic hardship COVID-19 has brought,” said Vic Fedeli, MPP for Nipissing during a Friday morning Zoom announcement. “This is a step in the right direction to foster real economic recovery in our communities.”
Mayor Al McDonald said the NOHFC has been a “success story” for northern Ontario.
“I think the provincial government is hitting it out of the park with this pandemic,” he said while urging North Bay small businesses to apply for government support.
Julie Gohm’s Original Bug Shirt Company in Powassan is among the businesses receiving money to help develop a website.
“Because of COVID-19, we had to pivot everything we did…this was huge for us to be able to have this opportunity,” she said, adding the online sales will allow her to hire more people.
Mark Downey, CEO of Fur Harvesters Auction Inc. in North Bay, says the money is a “shot in the arm” for his business, which largely relies on international travellers coming to the area to purchase furs.
“It’s difficult to sell wild fur when you can’t look at it,” he noted.
Over 1,300 businesses in northern Ontario were approved funding through NORP since applications closed in the fall.
